The
COVID-19 pandemic has plagued the world for more than two years, starting at
the end of 2019. The disease has spread like hell across the globe affecting
almost all countries in all aspects of life. However, it has also resulted in
technological improvements in virtual and augmented reality and AI that allow
people to live smarter and more productive lives, made possible by “smart
systems” in key areas such as healthcare, education, and community life.
One
way to limit the spread of the virus is to ensure strict lockdowns. During the
early days of the pandemic, human mobility was severely affected. People are
starting to take self-isolation measures in their homes. Most countries have
focused on developing smart lockdown strategies using various technological
solutions to contain COVID-19.
Contact
tracing, which has long been known, is the process of identifying individuals
who may have had close contact with an infected person when that person was a
carrier of a virus or viral pathogen. Contact tracing breaks the chain of
human-to-human transmission by identifying people exposed to confirmed cases,
quarantining them, following them up to ensure rapid isolation, and testing and
treatment if they develop symptoms. For decades, contact tracing has been the
basis of controlling epidemic diseases in public health, such as Ebola,
Smallpox, Measles, HIV, etc. The manual contact tracing technique is a
traditional way of contact tracing, which is used to identify close encounters
of an infected person. However, manual contact tracing techniques have some
significant limitations which also require a coordinated and centralized effort
to identify.
To
reduce the spread of COVID-19, contact tracing tools are used. While
manual/traditional contact tracing has several challenges such as
inefficiencies in paper-based reporting systems, incomplete contact
identification, complex data management requirements, and delays in steps from
contact identification to isolation of suspected cases among contacts, the
world is pressing for something. others who can solve the problem. Digital
contact tracing tools can play a huge role in addressing some of these
challenges which can only be effective if integrated into existing public
health systems that include manual contact tracing infrastructure, testing
services, and healthcare personnel. These tools include outbreak response,
symptom tracking tools, and distance tracking, which can be combined into a
single instrument or used as stand-alone tools.
Digital
contact tracing systems mostly come in the form of smartphone apps that use the
technology common to those devices – such as Bluetooth data exchange standards
or global positioning systems (GPS) – to track proximity between devices that
have those apps installed. . Proximity data can be used to infer the risk that
two users may be close enough and for a long enough time to infect each other
with the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Once a user has tested positive for the virus, the
digital contact tracing application can send alerts to other users who have
been in close contact with them according to the proximity data recorded by the
system. Alerted users can then test and isolate thereby reducing the
circulation of the virus in certain populations. Asian countries were among the
first to adopt digital contact tracing. Recognizing the public health potential
of digital contact tracing, many European countries have followed suit,
developing country systems in an effort to expand their contact tracing
capabilities.
With
it, digital contact tracing can tag individuals with over-contact, which could
help tackle outbreaks related to super-spread. The overall effectiveness of
digital tracking is highly dependent on application uptake, but a significant
impact can be achieved for moderate amounts of uptake. Used as a supplement to
manual tracing and other measures, digital browsing can play an important role
in controlling the pandemic.
References:
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Contact_Tracing-Tools_Annex-2020.1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8132499/
https://www.decibio.com/insights/digital-contact-tracing-advantages-risks-post-covid-applications
