ArticleArchives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique2022
COVID-19 contact tracing in Belgium: main indicators and performance, January - September 2021.
Article in Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identifying Long Covid phenotypes and their association with personal characteristics, healthcare use, and daily life burden: population-based study in Belgium.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Belgium's SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing effectively curbed transmission, yet challenges persist in terms of delays, scalability and population adherence.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Epidemic: Insights from the Experience of the Veneto Region in Italy.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Contact tracing strategies for infectious diseases: A systematic literature review.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Results of the Cologne Corona Surveillance (CoCoS) project- a cross-sectional study: survey data on risk factors of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and moderate-to-severe course in primarily immunized adults.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Translating the COVID-19 epidemiological situation into policies and measures: the Belgian experience.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Personal characteristics and transmission dynamics associated with SARS-CoV-2 semi-quantitative PCR test results: an observational study from Belgium, 2021-2022.Frontiers in public health · 2024Observational
- SARS-CoV-2 Quarantine Mandated by Contact Tracing: Burden and Infection Rate Among Close Contacts in Zurich, Switzerland, 2020-2021.International journal of public health · 2024Article
- A Retrospective Analysis of Jordan's National COVID-19 Call Center: Operations, Effectiveness, and Lessons Learned.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
- Association between SARS-CoV-2 variants and post COVID-19 condition: findings from a longitudinal cohort study in the Belgian adult population.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- COVID-19 contact tracing at work in Belgium - how tracers tweak guidelines for the better.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Social inequalities and long-term health impact of COVID-19 in Belgium: protocol of the HELICON population data linkage.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Article
- Comparing the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 across age groups considering sampling biases - use of testing data of autumn 2021 in Belgium.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2023Article
- Characterizing the role of human behavior in the effectiveness of contact-tracing applications.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Key performance indicators of COVID-19 contact tracing in Belgium from September 2020 to December 2021.PloS one · 2023Article
- Transformative practice and its interactional challenges in COVID-19 telephone contact tracing in Flanders.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Empirical evidence on the efficiency of backward contact tracing in COVID-19.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Post COVID-19 condition and its physical, mental and social implications: protocol of a 2-year longitudinal cohort study in the Belgian adult population.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2022Article
- Incidence and Risk Factors of COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections: A Prospective Cohort Study in Belgium.Viruses · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundContact tracing is one of the main public health tools in the control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A centralized contact tracing system was developed in Belgium in 2020. We aim to evaluate the performance and describe the results, between January 01, 2021, and September 30, 2021. The characteristics of COVID-19 cases and the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on testing and tracing are also described.
methodsWe combined laboratory diagnostic test data (molecular and antigen test), vaccination data, and contact tracing data. A descriptive analysis was done to evaluate the performance of contact tracing and describe insights into the epidemiology of COVID-19 by contact tracing.
resultsBetween January and September 2021, 555.181 COVID-19 cases were reported to the central contact center and 91% were contacted. The average delay between symptom onset and contact tracing initiation was around 5 days, of which 4 days corresponded to pre-testing delay. High-Risk Contacts (HRC) were reported by 49% of the contacted index cases. The mean number of reported HRC was 2.7. In total, 666.869 HRC were reported of which 91% were successfully contacted and 89% of these were tested at least once following the interview. The estimated average secondary attack rate (SAR) among the contacts of the COVID-19 cases who reported at least one contact, was 27% and was significantly higher among household HRC. The proportion of COVID-19 cases who were previously identified as HRC within the central system was 24%.
conclusionsThe contact-tracing system contacted more than 90% of the reported COVID-19 cases and their HRC. This proportion remained stable between January 1 2021 and September 30 2021 despite an increase in cases in March-April 2021. We report high SAR, indicating that through contact tracing a large number of infections were prospectively detected. The system can be further improved by (1) reducing the delay between onset of illness and medical consultation (2) having more exhaustive reporting of HRC by the COVID-19 case.
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