A survey of COVID-19 contact-tracing apps

Recently, the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 virus caused a major health crisis by affecting masses around the world. The virus, which is known to be highly contagious, has forced the research community and governments to fight the disease and take prompt actions by applying various strategies to k...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computers in biology and medicine 2021-10, Vol.137, p.104787-104787, Article 104787
Main Authors: Min-Allah, Nasro, Alahmed, Bashayer Abdullah, Albreek, Elaf Mohammed, Alghamdi, Lina Shabab, Alawad, Doaa Abdullah, Alharbi, Abeer Salem, Al-Akkas, Noor, Musleh, Dhiaa, Alrashed, Saleh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access control
Application
Bluetooth
Contact tracing
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease control
Disease spread
Disease transmission
Electric contacts
Geofences
Global positioning systems
GPS
Mathematical models
Personal information
Polls & surveys
Privacy
Public health
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Smartphones
Viral diseases
Viruses
Wireless networks
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Summary:Recently, the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 virus caused a major health crisis by affecting masses around the world. The virus, which is known to be highly contagious, has forced the research community and governments to fight the disease and take prompt actions by applying various strategies to keep the numbers under control. These strategies range from imposing strict social distancing measures, isolating infected cases, and enforcing either a partial or a full lockdown, to mathematical modeling and contact-tracing applications. In this work, we survey the current contact-tracing apps and organize them based on underlying technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, geofencing, and Quick Response (QR) codes. We compare the main features of 22 existing applications and highlight each of the pros and cons associated with these different technologies. •Contact-tracing applications mainly use QR codes, Wi-Fi, geofencing, Bluetooth, and/or GPS.•Wi-Fi–based solutions are fast, but limited by real-world availability of Wi-Fi.•Apps based on Bluetooth are precise, making it a widespread contact-tracing solution.•For best implementation, a QR-code approach is favored due to automatic scanning.
ISSN:0010-4825
1879-0534
DOI:10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104787