The Necessity of Close Contact Tracing in Combating COVID-19 Infection – A Systemic Study

Abstract

Many contact tracing solutions developed by countries around the globe in containing the Covid-19 pandemic are in the area of location-based tracing, which does not enable them to identify close contacts accurately. As location-based tracing implementations continuous on, the results have not been as effective as intended. Thus, in providing some closure, this study will dissect the need for close contact tracing solutions for the pandemic by providing a comprehensive contact tracing characteristic framework (CCTCF) for Covid-19, which will help authorities toward better pandemic management. In this study, CCTCF for Covid-19 was constructed by applying several methods. Using Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) as the framework, methods conducted were: (1) Case study to analyze the contact tracing systems in 30 countries; (2) Systematic literature review (n=2056) regarding solutions’ elements, (3) Thematic analysis for characteristics framework development. A total of 25 items were obtained for CCTCF, along with valuable insights that necessitate close contact tracing for the pandemic. Results from CCTCF have also shown that the best contact tracing solution for Covid-19 is bi-directional human-to-human close contact tracing, which uses a retrospective approach and is able to identify the source as well as groups of infection using a personal area network (PAN). Doi: 10.28991/esj-2022-SPER-019 Full Text: PDF