As states across the country get back to business, scientists and public health professionals are cautioning that testing and contact tracing must be in place if we have any hope of preventing future outbreaks of the coronavirus. Countries in Europe and Asia have adopted programs to identify potential carriers and track their interactions, but the United States is just beginning to look at how a successful tracing program can be implemented and managed.

In a nutshell, the point of contact tracing is to identify where people who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 go and with whom they’ve interacted. Tracing necessarily implicates information of more than one person. Once the subject of tracing has opted in and agreed to be tracked, they’ve opened the door for friends, colleagues and casual acquaintances to be on the government’s radar screen.