Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Contact-tracing app predicts risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

The risk of catching COVID-19 as calculated by a smartphone app scales with the probability of subsequently testing positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, showing that digital contact tracing is a useful tool for fighting future pandemics.
  1. Justus Benzler

    1. Justus Benzler is in the Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353 Berlin, Germany.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The COVID-19 pandemic was the first global outbreak in human history to unfold in a world where many countries had more than 70% smartphone coverage1. This generated many initiatives for smartphone applications that could complement or replace established measures to control the spread of infection in pandemics. For instance, apps were developed that could deliver test results, provide proof of vaccination2 or trace the recent contacts of an infected person. Writing in Nature, Ferretti et al.3 report that data from a smartphone app used for contact tracing can provide valuable epidemiological information.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 626, 42-43 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-04063-6

References

  1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/539395

  2. Cascini, F. et al. Front. Public Health 9, 744356 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ferretti, L. et al. Nature 626, 145–150 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Contact Tracing for COVID-19: Current Evidence, Options for Scale-up and an Assessment of Resources Needed (ECDC, 2020).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bradford, L., Aboy, M. & Liddell, K. J. Law Biosci. 7, lsaa034 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. https://www.macrumors.com/guide/exposure-notification

  7. https://algorithmwatch.org/en/analysis-digital-contact-tracing-apps-2021

  8. Hinch, R. et al. PLoS Comput. Biol. 17, e1009146 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Wymant, C. et al. Nature 594, 408–412 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

J.B. is an employee of the National Public Health Institute within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Health, and has been involved in the development and implementation of the Corona-Warn-App, the German proximity tracing app and equivalent to the NHS COVID-19 app.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links