Explained: What is contract tracing?

Explained: What is contract tracing?

Contact tracing has been used for decades to control the spread of infectious diseases.

The basic idea is simple: track down infected people, then find everyone who has been near them and encourage those people to stay home until it is clear they are not sick.

Francesca Lynagh reports.

What is contact tracing?

And how can it help stop the spread of infectious diseases?

The basic idea is simple: track down infected people, then find everyone who has been near them and encourage those people to stay home until it is clear they are not sick.

Large portions of the world’s population are currently on lockdown.

But it’s when restrictions are lifted that contract tracing is likely to become even more important.

Doctors say that once people return to school and work, each infected person could easily come into contact with 1,000 others.

But contact tracing requires extensive testing.

With a need for hundreds of thousands of health investigators to carry out the tests in the U.S. alone.

Technology could hugely improve efficiency.

Apple and Google say they are collaborating on apps that can identify people who have crossed paths with a contagious patient and alert them.

That does raises some privacy concerns though….

And such a database could be a hackers' goldmine and be prone to governmental abuse.

Apple and Google said that apps seeking to use its tools would need to be voluntary.

But unless they are widely used, they won't achieve their purpose.