Prioritizing COVID-19 Contact Tracing During a Surge Using Chatbot Technology

Am J Public Health. 2022 Jan;112(1):43-47. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306563.

Abstract

When COVID-19 cases surge, identifying ways to improve the efficiency of contact tracing and prioritize vulnerable communities for isolation and quarantine support services is critical. During a fall 2020 COVID-19 resurgence in San Francisco, California, prioritization of telephone-based case investigation by zip code and using a chatbot to screen for case participants who needed isolation support reduced the number of case participants who would have been assigned for a telephone interview by 31.5% and likely contributed to 87.5% of Latinx case participants being successfully interviewed. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(1):43-47. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306563).

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19 / epidemiology*
  • COVID-19 / prevention & control*
  • Contact Tracing / methods*
  • Humans
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • San Francisco / epidemiology
  • Technology
  • Telephone