Understanding the impact of digital contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Digital contact tracing (DCT) applications have been introduced in many countries to aid the containment of COVID-19 outbreaks. Initially, enthusiasm was high regarding their implementation as a non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). However, no country was able to prevent larger outbreaks without falling back to harsher NPIs. Here, we discuss results of a stochastic infectious-disease model that provide insights in how the progression of an outbreak and key parameters such as detection probability, app participation and its distribution, as well as engagement of users impact DCT efficacy informed by results of empirical studies. We further show how contact heterogeneity and local contact clustering impact the intervention's efficacy. We conclude that DCT apps might have prevented cases on

SUBMITTER: Burdinski A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9931320 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature