Analysis of COVID-19 contact tracing data from Ireland, Italy and Spain – 2020 data

The aim of this project was to explore the main challenges in analysing contact tracing data and to identify areas for improvement that could enhance the use of contact tracing data for surveillance and public health management, as well as facilitate the sharing of information and experiences among European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) Member States. The specific objectives were to:

• Perform an analysis of contact tracing data in three countries (Italy, Ireland and Spain) and describe the methods used to analyse these data, the main challenges that arose during this analysis, and how these challenges were overcome.
• Assess the feasibility of using a list of contact tracing indicators for countries to report from their contact tracing systems.

As a result, suggestions for best practice, together with a set of essential variables and a set of suggested variables to calculate contact tracing indicators, are proposed. These indicators are useful for understanding transmission dynamics in the population, understanding locations or settings of high transmission and measuring the impact of mitigation measures.