Contact tracing in the context of COVID-19: interim guidance, 10 May 2020

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and spreads from person-to-person through droplet and contact transmission. To control the spread of COVID-19, interventions need to break the chains of human-to-human transmission, ensuring that the number of new cases generated by each confirmed case is maintained below 1 (effective reproduction number < 1). As part of a comprehensive strategy, case identification, isolation, testing and care, and contact tracing and quarantine, are critical activities to reduce transmission and control the epidemic.

Contact tracing is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to a disease to prevent onward transmission. When systematically applied, contact tracing will break the chains of transmission of an infectious disease and is thus an essential public health tool for controlling infectious disease outbreaks. Contact tracing for COVID-19 requires identifying persons who may have been exposed to COVID-19 and following them up daily for 14 days from the last point of exposure.

This document provides guidance on how to establish contact tracing capacity for the control of COVID-19. It builds upon WHO considerations in the investigation of cases and clusters of COVID-19.