VANCOUVER -- When a case of COVID-19 is confirmed, the associated health authority reaches out to the patient and their contacts to make sure information is being shared.

It's called contact tracing, meaning tracing the infected person's contacts, and communicating what they need to know.

But who is behind this contact tracing?

A job posting from B.C.'s Fraser Health Authority gives an idea of who's behind this line of defence in the province's battle against novel coronavirus.

The post on Fraser Health's website says eligible candidates for casual, temporary part-time and temporary full-time jobs must have completed at least their high school education.

Successful applicants for the contact tracing aide jobs available will have six months of "recent, related experience," the job post says, and must be able to type at least 40 words per minute.

According to several typing tests websites that advertise typing classes, the average person types about 38 to 45 words per minute.

The post says an equivalent combination of education, training and experience would also be fine.

Those hired will be expected to speak to patients diagnosed with the disease by phone, collecting information about who they've been in contact with while infected.

Communication with those contacts and the patients themselves will be daily, Fraser Health says. Questionnaires will be filled out about symptoms, and the tracing aide will be expected to provide information on testing and isolation.

Tracing aides will have to keep records and documentation of their communication as well.

The job pays between $18.59 and $20.56 per hour, Fraser Health says, and is based in Surrey.