COVID-19 and Contact Tracing – RESOURCES and REFERENCES
The following links have been curated from numerous sources on the internet. Sources are attributed.
People power: How India will curb outbreak with contact tracing
India…cannot test the majority of its 1.3 billion people, so the country has sent thousands of public-health workers into villages, towns and cities to trace and quarantine those who might have had contact with infected people. (Nature | 6 min read)
Massachusetts installs an army of contact tracers
At a time when many industries are in hiring freezes, coronavirus contact tracers are in high demand. In Boston, San Francisco, and other cities around the country, health agencies are looking to hire people who can track down contacts of Covid-19 patients and inform them of the risk they may pose to others and have them take precautionary measures. STAT contributor Maggie Fox has more here (STAT).
Wisconsin health officials explain contact tracing and how it tackles COVID-19
Public health officials across southeast Wisconsin believe a process known as contact tracing is one of the paths out of the coronavirus pandemic. WTMJ-TV Milwaukee
How Contact Tracing Works And How It Can Help Reopen The Country
The process is called contact tracing. It’s been a critical tool to control the spread of infectious diseases for decades. Now, public health leaders are calling for communities around the country to ramp up capacity and get ready for a massive contact tracing effort to control the coronavirus. NPR 1 NPR 2
National plan for contact tracing
In order to save lives, reduce COVID-19’s burden on our healthcare system, ease strict social distancing measures, and confidently make progress toward returning to work and school, the United States must implement a robust and comprehensive system to identify all COVID-19 cases and trace all close contacts of each identified case. This plan outlines a vision for how to accomplish this goal… Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
WHO Definition of Contact Tracing
Wikipedia Definition of Contact Tracing
CDC Guidance for Digital Contact Tracing Tools for COVID-19
Digital contact tracing tools vary in purpose, features, and complexity. CDC provides this guidance at its website here and in a flyer here
Technological solutions (“apps”) to drive down rate of infections
The pace of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States has quickly overcome existing public health infrastructure…Several countries have used technology to scale up these capabilities. A modeling study conducted by a team in Oxford, UK, demonstrates that, with the use of technological solutions, it is possible to drive the rate at which infections are reproduced below a threshold needed to halt the spread of COVID-19. Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Also JMIR article here
MIT’s solution here
Apple and Google have a clever way of encouraging people to install contact-tracing apps for COVID-19
By building contact-tracing into their operating systems, the companies could make a difference in the global pandemic response The Verge
Shortcomings of apps
Tech isn’t solution to COVID-19, says Singapore director of contact tracing app. Contact tracing using mobile apps has shortcomings in life or death situations, the government official says. C|Net
Public is skeptical about apps
Many don’t think that the government could successfully use cellphone tracking to limit the spread of coronavirus, and others are divided over whether this kind of surveillance is acceptable. (Pew 4/7-4/12).