Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions against COVID-19 Pandemic: Review of Contact Tracing and Social Distancing Technologies, Protocols, Apps, Security and Open Research Directions

Abstract

The COVID-19 Pandemic has punched a devastating blow on the majority of the world’s population. Millions of people have been infected while hundreds of thousands have died of the disease throwing many families into mourning and other psychological torments. It has also crippled the economy of many countries of the world leading to job losses, high inflation, and dwindling Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The duo of social distancing and contact tracing are the major technological-based non-pharmaceutical public health intervention strategies adopted for combating the dreaded disease. These technologies have been deployed by different countries around the world to achieve effective and efficient means of maintaining appropriate distance and tracking the transmission pattern of the diseases or identifying those at high risk of infecting others. This paper aims to synthesize the research efforts on contact tracing and social distancing to minimize the spread of COVID-19. The paper critically and comprehensively reviews contact tracing technologies, protocols, and mobile applications (apps) that were recently developed and deployed against the coronavirus disease. Furthermore, the paper discusses social distancing technologies, appropriate methods to maintain distances, regulations, isolation/quarantine, and interaction strategies. In addition, the paper highlights different security/privacy vulnerabilities identified in contact tracing and social distancing technologies and solutions against these vulnerabilities. We also x-rayed the strengths and weaknesses of the various technologies concerning their application in contact tracing and social distancing. Finally, the paper proposed insightful recommendations and open research directions in contact tracing and social distancing that could assist researchers, developers, and governments in implementing new technological methods to combat the menace of COVID-19.

Exploring privacy paradox in contact tracing apps adoption

“…Yasaka et al (2020) develop an effective contact tracing app that respects the privacy of individuals in which location information and personal data are not collected. Alo et al (2022) present a comprehensive review of the use of various contact tracing technologies and their implication to information security and privacy. These studies above address the privacy issue in adopting contact tracing apps more from a technical perspective.…”

Using a Proximity-Detection Technology to Nudge for Physical Distancing in a Swedish Workplace During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Case Study

“…The choice of UWB instead of a Bluetooth device is in line with other recent studies on the efficacy of Bluetooth devices for contact-tracing purposes, indicating that proximity detection between individuals can be challenging in practice [ 53 , 54 ], and Kindt et al [ 54 ] specifically recommended UWB technology as an alternative to Bluetooth. However, as noted by Alo et al [ 50 ], UWB is more energy demanding than Bluetooth, and in this study, the battery life of the distance tags was deemed unsatisfactory.…”

“…Previous studies have reviewed or suggested a variety of designs that allow proximity detection and encourage physical distancing behavior [ 17 - 19 , 50 ]. However, few empirical studies have investigated the technical efficacy of proximity detection [ 19 ].…”

Estimating indoor crowd density and movement behavior using WiFi sensing

“…The next step involves location detection for specific times, and this step is nearly universal, regardless of the purpose of the study. However, some studies are predominantly concerned with device counting and tracking the number of people in a certain zone or location Li et al (2018); Singh et al (2021); Alo et al (2022).…”