As the quarantine is slowly lifted, US citizens are coming out of hibernation to a new public life with new social practices including maintaining a physical distance of at least six feet, working from home when possible, avoiding large gatherings and leaving your home only to access essential services like groceries and healthcare.

Contact Tracing’s Role in Public Safety

With this new phase comes a new strategy in the COVID-19 battle: contact tracing.

Never heard of it? You’re not the only one. But for decades, contact tracing has been used behind the pandemic battle scenes, an instrumental weapon against several deadly and debilitating communicable diseases including polio, smallpox, Ebola, and tuberculosis, protecting millions of lives around the world. How it works is that contact tracing identifies those who have been in contact with an infected person, tests them for infection and then treats them if needed, finding and isolating cases before it spreads.