Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has clear potential for a long-lasting global pandemic, high fatality rates, and incapacitated health systems.
Until vaccines are widely available, the only available infection prevention approaches are case isolation, contact tracing and quarantine, physical distancing, decontamination, hand hygiene and other hygiene measures.
Contact tracing is currently one of the most effective measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to identify persons that would otherwise not be known or remembered and to keep the time delay when reporting infection and when contacting people as short as possible, digital contact tracing using smartphones is a reasonable measure additional to manual contact tracing.
The mobile phone contact tracing app can make contact tracing and notification instantaneous upon a case has been confirmed. By keeping a temporary record of proximity events between individuals, it can immediately alert recent close contacts of diagnosed cases and prompt them to self-isolate.
The Department of Nursing encourages all its students to download the app COVID Alert Malta on their smartphone.
For more information visit the COVID Alert Malta website.