Contact-Tracing Has Failed... Now What?

The government's systems to find people who might pass on coronavirus infections to others, known as contact tracing, are in disarray across Europe and the USA, reported the WSJ on September 17, 2020. In France, Spain, and England investigators have been interviewing far fewer contacts of infected people than officials expected.

With many governments unwilling to reimpose sweeping lockdowns, epidemiologists say swift contact tracing is essential to limit the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus because infected people become contagious before they develop symptoms. That means the contacts of people who have tested positive must be identified and isolated quickly before they unknowingly infect others.

One positive case-study is the Republic of Singapore, which has enhanced its national-level contact tracing efforts by requiring anyone entering a public venue to be scanned for a QR code or identity cards to verify health status.

This effort contrasts with some U.S. states and big cities, where investigators aren’t contacting many people who test positive, and those who are reached, often don’t disclose their contacts. That has prevented investigators from casting a wide net to stop new infections. The full WSJ article is found at this link.