Passive contact tracing and social distancing assessment for COVID-19

新冠肺炎疫情给公共卫生和全球经济带来了巨大的损害，也是我们未来两三年面临的最大挑战。新冠肺炎是一种新的传染病，目前还没有药物或疫苗。社会距离已成为最有效的保护措施之一。SARS-CoV-2病毒的传播非常有效。在没有干预的情况下，繁殖数量在2到3之间。潜伏期的中位数约为5天(最多14天)，但人们能够在患病前2天传播病毒，直到康复。如果人们在感染早期接触到感染者，我们只有一到三天的时间在他们变得感染之前找到密切接触者。通过发现这些人并要求他们隔离和阻止指数式传播链来采取行动的机会窗口非常短。公共卫生系统必须对新冠肺炎病例做出非常迅速的反应。越来越多的证据表明，封闭的室内空间，如家庭、办公室、交通、餐馆等，是病毒传播的最肥沃土壤。随着重新开放的开始，社交距离和接触者追踪对于遏制病毒在每个企业和组织中的传播至关重要。就所需的规模而言，接触者追踪是一项艰巨的任务，在工作场所使用追踪工具的组织可以与卫生部门合作，有效地管理新冠肺炎。在这个项目中，紫外线研究人员和世纪公司将开发一个基于隐私保护的WIFI系统来对抗新冠肺炎，以实现 1)被动的室内接触者追踪的时空维度； 2)对楼内社交距离实践的评估； 3)深度消毒环境污染图。 开发的技术有助于在商业、专业或政府机构的场所进行工作场所新冠肺炎管理。根据该组织的政策，在发生感染或暴发的情况下，可以迅速与卫生当局分享结果。

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous damage to public health and global economy, and is the greatest challenge we are facing for the next two or three years. COVID-19 is a new infectious disease and currently there is no drugs or vaccine. Social distancing has become one of the most effective protection measures. The virus SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted very efficiently. Without intervention, the reproductive number is between 2 to 3. The median incubation period is about 5 days (up to 14 days), but people are able to spread the virus 2 days before they become ill until they recover. If people were exposed to an infected person at the early infectious stage, we have only one to three days to find the close contacts before they become infectious. The window of opportunity to act by finding those people and asking them to quarantine and stop the exponential transmission chains is very short. The public health systems have to respond very quickly to COVID-19 cases. Mounting evidence shows that enclosed indoor spaces such as home, offices, transport, restaurants, etc., are the most fertile ground for virus spread. Social distancing and contact tracing are vital to contain virus transmission in every business and organization as reopening begins. Contact tracing is a daunting task for the scale required and organizations employing tracing tools at workplace can cooperate with the health departments to manage COVID-19 efficiently. In this project, UVic researchers and Acentury Inc. will develop a privacy preserved WiFi based system in the fight of COVID-19, to achieve 1) Passive indoor contact tracing in spatial and temporal dimensions; 2) Assessment of in-building social distancing practice; 3) Environment contamination mapping for deep disinfection. The technologies developed facilitate workplace COVID-19 management on a business, professional or government organization's premises. The results can be quickly shared with health authorities in cases of infections or outbreaks, as directed by the organization policy.