Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

July 20, 2020

Impact of Delays on Effectiveness of Contact Tracing Strategies for COVID-19: A Modelling Study

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  • Kretzschmar et al. used a model to demonstrate the relative importance of minimizing delays and maximizing coverage of contact tracing and testing. With a delay of three days or longer in testing and tracing, even complete coverage of contacts was not sufficient to reach R values below 1, which would lead to decline of the epidemic.  

Kretzschmar et al. (July 16, 2020). Impact of Delays on Effectiveness of Contact Tracing Strategies for COVID-19: A Modelling Study. The Lancet Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30157-2