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Review
. 2021 Aug;50(8):1547-1554.
doi: 10.18502/ijph.v50i8.6800.

COVID-19 Isolation and Contact Tracing with Country Samples: A Systematic Review

Cemal Koçak  1
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 Isolation and Contact Tracing with Country Samples: A Systematic Review

Cemal Koçak. Iran J Public Health. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 was first declared as an international public health emergency and then a pandemic by the WHO. In this systematic review, the importance of isolation and contact tracing has been explained, and what kinds of practices exist in different countries are mentioned.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA and Cochrane guidelines by searching articles from major medical databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CINAHL between Jan 1, 2020 and Apr 1, 2021. Observational and modeling studies written on contact tracing, screening, quarantine and isolation were included.

Results: 27 observational and modeling studies were included. It was seen that rapid contact tracing to reduce the basic reproduction number (R0) from 3.11 to 0.21. Additionally, each new case requires an average of 36 people to be monitored. Since screening programs missed 75% of cases, high-level contact tracing should also be done simultaneously. Wide quarantine would prevent 79.27% deaths and 87.08% infections.

Conclusion: Effective, rapid contact tracing is the cornerstone of an effective public health response in outbreaks. Its success depends on quickly identifying cases, gathering information from them about their last contacts, and tracing and isolating those contacts.

Keywords: COVID-19; Contact tracing; Isolation; Quarantine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
Flow chart for study search, selection, and screening for the systematic review
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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