BRUSSELS: The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a tool to evaluate the public health effectiveness of contact tracing solutions, according to a statement.  The tool, known as an indicator framework, will provide countries with a standardised approach for evaluating their use of digital proximity tracing solutions, as per reports. It will also assess the extent to which these solutions have aided national contact tracing strategies for Covid-19, the statement noted.

Countries have employed innovative technologies throughout the pandemic to support the implementation of public health and social measures. Digital proximity tracing, by using smartphones or other devices to capture anonymised interactions between individuals and which would then issue alerts, emerged as a new means of support for contact tracing programs.

"This new indicator framework offers countries a standardized approach to gather the evidence and assess the contribution that digital proximity tracing technology has made to large-scale contact tracing efforts for Covid-19," said Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, director of the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems at WHO/Europe. "We anticipate that it will become an invaluable tool," she added.

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