COVID-19 tracing apps ineffective in curbing virus transmission? Read what study says

After the widespread of COVID-19, a number of COVID-19 contact tracing apps were released. But recent reports claim that these contact tracing apps will fail to contain the virus if proper public health control measures such as physical distancing and closure of indoor spaces are not followed thoroughly. Read more to know other details about the COVID19 contact tracing apps. 

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Are COVID-19 contact tracing apps effective?

As per the proper review that was published in the journal Lancet Digital Health, the effectiveness of the automated contact tracing systems is currently very limited. A research was conducted about the same and suggested that a large-scale manual contact tracing would be more efficient after other public health control measures -- such as physical distancing and closure of indoor spaces are taken care of. They also mentioned that these measures would be done in conjunction with some automated approaches.

Lead author Isobel Braithwaite from University College London spoke to PTI and said, "Across a number of modelling studies, we found a consistent picture that although automated contact tracing could support manual contact tracing, the systems will require large-scale uptake by the population and strict adherence to quarantine advice by contacts notified to have a significant impact on reducing transmission.”

This was done after reviewing 4,033 papers that were published between January 2000 and April 2020. This allowed the researchers to identify 15 papers with useful data.

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Isobel Braithwaite also mentioned, "Although automated contact tracing shows some promise in helping reduce transmission of COVID-19 within communities, our research highlighted the urgent need for further evaluation of these apps within public health practice.” 

Robert Aldridge from UCL Institute of Health Informatics also spoke to PTI and said, "We currently do not have good evidence about whether a notification from a smartphone app is as effective in breaking chains of transmission by giving the advice to isolate due to contact with a case of COVID-19 when compared to advice provided by a public health contact tracer.”

He added, "We urgently need to study this evidence gap and examine how automated approaches can be integrated with existing contact tracing and disease control strategies, and generate evidence on whether these new digital approaches are cost-effective and equitable. Too much reliance on automated contact tracing apps may also increase the risk of Covid-19 for vulnerable and digitally-excluded groups such as older people and people experiencing homelessness.”

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