App-based contact tracing may substantially reduce pandemic spread
App-based contact tracing may substantially reduce pandemic spread
New research has shone further light on the various rates of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, suggesting app-based contact tracing may significantly reduce the spread of the virus.
A report appearing in the journal Science shows that a substantial amount of the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be from persons who are presymptomatic.
As a consequence, the authors suggest that a mobile app-based contact tracing system would radically decrease the amount of time it takes to identify people who've come into contact with the person who is rolling out the disease COVID-19.
This could significantly reduce the overall rate of spread of the virus, paving just how for what the authors call “intelligent social distancing,” instead of national lockdown.
Toward ‘intelligent social distancing’
The scientific evidence that's informing government policy in the United Kingdom, and other countries around the world, currently recommends an insurance plan of suppressing the SARS-CoV-2 virus instead of mitigating it. By this, the data suggests reducing its spread, so far as possible, generally through significant and comprehensive social distancing.
The research suggests that this will significantly decrease the number of individuals who die because of the virus transmission, in addition to reduce the pressure on public health services - particularly critical care units - which have been left underfunded following 12 years of austerity measures because the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
A suppression strategy requires widespread social distancing until scientists can produce an effective vaccine. While this process has reduced the entire level of mortality, additionally it is likely to have a variety of negative social, economic, and ethical effects.
In the words of the authors of the research currently influencing government policy in the U.K., “The social and economic effects of the measures [that] are had a need to accomplish that policy goal will be profound.”
Finding ways to minimize the time people have to spend social distancing is, therefore, critical.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
