Perceived usefulness of COVID-19 tools for contact tracing among contact tracers in Korea

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: In Korea, contact tracing for coronavirus disease 2019 is conducted using the information from credit card records, handwritten visitor logs, KI-Pass (QR code), and Safe Call after an interview. We aimed to assess the usefulness of these tools for contact tracing. METHODS: The 2 months (July to September 2021) long anonymous online survey was conducted. Contact tracers from throughout Korea were included as the participants. The questionnaire consisted of 4 parts: 1) demographic characteristics, 2) usefulness of each tool for contact tracing, 3) order in which information is checked during contact tracing, and 4) match rate between tools for contact tracing, screening test rate, response rate, and helpfulness (rated on a Likert scale). RESULTS: A total of 190 individuals participated in the survey. When asked to rate the usefulness of each tool for contact tracing on a Likert scale, most respondents (86%) provided positive response for “credit card records”, while the most common response for “handwritten visitor logs” was negative. The actual helpfulness of positive response was KI-Pass (91%), Credit card records (83%), Safe Call (78%), and Handwritten visitor logs (22%). CONCLUSIONS: Over 80% of participants provided positive responses to credit card records, KI-Pass, and Safe Call data, while approximately 50% provided negative responses regarding the usefulness of handwritten visitor logs. Our findings highlight the need to unify systems for contact tracing performed after an interview to increase their convenience for contact tracers, as well as the need to improve tools that utilize handwritten visitor logs for digitally vulnerable groups.