Contact tracing, both manual and potentially with digital apps, is considered a key ingredient in the control of infectious disease outbreaks. During the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, for example, it has been widely considered, discussed, and experimented in the strategies making it possible to alleviate the lockdown and to return to a quasi-normal functioning of society. However, the current leading modeling framework for evaluating contact tracing is highly stylized, lacking important features and heterogeneities present in real-world contact patterns that are relevant for epidemic dynamics.
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