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According to an NPR survey of state health departments, contact tracing employees have tripled in the last six weeks from 11,142 workers to 37,110. However, public health researchers say that only seven states - plus the District of Columbia - are adequately staffed. Contact tracers reach out to new positive coronavirus cases, trace their contacts, and connect these people to the services they need to isolate themselves. The seven states who have an adequate number to meet existing needs are Alaska, Montana, Oregon, West Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Other states have "volunteers in waiting" in case positive cases spike again - these are Washington, Idaho, North Dakota, South Carolina and Connecticutt. The rest of the country does not have adequate numbers of these workers to deal with positive cases. While ramping up the number of contact tracers has proceeded well enough since the last survey in late April, the fact that many states are reopening without having sufficient numbers of contact tracers is a concern to many current and former public health officials.