contact trace

English

Alternative forms

• contact-trace

Etymology

Back-formation from contact tracing.

Verb

contact trace (third-person singular simple present contact traces, present participle contact tracing, simple past and past participle contact traced)

1. (epidemiology) To identify everyone with whom a person carrying an infectious disease has come into contact since contracting the disease.
   • 2021 January 13, Jen Sotolongo, “Washington’s gyms and fitness centers reopened this week, but COVID-19 closures have them struggling to stay alive”, in The Seattle Times‎^[1]:

     “We’ve had over 15 million check-ins across the country since June, and have yet to have a COVID breakout or case that is contact-traced back to our club,” Sanft said.

   • 2021 January 17, Rosita Boland, “‘I got a burning smell in my nose’: Third-wave Covid-19 patients share their experiences”, in The Irish Times‎^[2]:

     Sarah is 49 and lives in Dublin in a household of five. “A household member had been contact traced via text,” she says. “I fell ill on the night of the December 28th. I had a night of fever; of being hot and cold, feeling very achey and fluey. I had been fine during the day, but during the night, the symptoms came on relatively quickly.”

Related terms

• contact tracer
• contact tracing

 

Translations

to identify everyone with whom a person carrying an infectious disease has come into contact

• Spanish: rastrear contactos, rastrear los contactos
• Vietnamese: theo dõi liên lạc, truy tìm tiếp xúc, truy vết tiếp xúc, theo dõi các tiếp xúc, theo dõi các liên hệ