In early June, the states contact tracing workforce numbered about 2,900, and it reached almost 3,200 later in the month before dropping again. If you dont have enough people out there doing [contact tracing], its difficult to stay on top of it. Its kind of like the dams being broken open, said Rodney Rohde, a virologist and epidemiologist at Texas State University. Anton said the states workforce can scale up as needed, including by recalling the DSHS employees who were taken off contact tracing. Our goal is to match the contact tracing staff we have to the workload as closely as possible, Anton said.