Challenges of contact tracing in college students during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Contact tracing is essential to help monitor and control the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 virus. Many universities across the United States have developed and implemented contact tracing programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this viewpoint article, we characterized and reflected on the unique challenges of contact tracing in college students based on our extensive experience at a large urban private university. Three challenges of contact tracing were identified, including 1) contact tracers’ difficulty building trust with students, 2) students’ unwillingness to disclose information due to fear of consequences, and 3) students acting carelessly and not following guidelines. We made recommendations to address these challenges to enhance the practice of contact tracing to protect the health of this young adult population.

Keywords:

• Contact tracing
• COVID-19
• pandemic
• college students

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Contact Tracing Team and Site Supervisors of the COVID-19 Testing Center at Northeastern University for their knowledge, strong contribution, and constant support. We also wanted to Ms. Winnie Li and Nicole Piscopio for their editing help.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Northeastern University.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.