contact trace

verb

contact traced; contact tracing; contact traces

intransitive verb

: to identify, notify, and monitor individuals who may have had close contact with a person having a confirmed or probable case of infectious disease : to engage in the practice of contact tracing

How well a college contact traces, places infected students in isolation, disseminates a steady stream of messaging to students about following safety practices and punishes offenders all have an impact on how much the virus spreads, [Gonzalo] Bearman said.

—Eric Kolenich

Campbell County Public Health … also contact traces for diseases like measles and whooping cough, where a dozen cases qualifies as an outbreak.

—Johnathan Gallardo and Mike Moore

Yet the only way we'll all win is if we'll do everything possible between now and then—wear a mask, wash our hands, socially distance, contact trace—to put this coronavirus permanently in our rearview mirror in order to return to our old normal every hour of every day.

—Mark Wiedmer

transitive verb

: to identify and notify (someone) through contact tracing

"Our school has done the best they can to keep us all as safe as possible, but I just happened to be in an unfortunate situation and ended being contact traced. I am choosing to focus on all of the positive experiences I had this season and the great memories I made with my team."

—Alexi Fogo

Examples of contact trace in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. —Mike Stobbe, Chicago Tribune, 12 Nov. 2024

Unlike in the early days of the pandemic, contact tracing is no longer a widespread practice. —Hannah Singleton, Health, 30 Sep. 2024

Sawyer died the next day, and a massive contact tracing effort by the government found 19 others who had been infected. —Byjon Cohen, science.org, 9 Aug. 2024

To see Kate Winslet initiate a round of contact tracing, or Jennifer Ehle devise a vaccine, is to witness the rarest of disaster-movie spectacles: human workers committing themselves to the belief that intelligence and empathy can go hand in hand. —The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1987, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Medical Definition

contact trace

verb

intransitive verb

: to identify, notify, and monitor individuals who may have had close contact with a person having a confirmed or probable case of infectious disease : to engage in the practice of contact tracing

Campbell County Public Health … contact traces for diseases like measles and whooping cough, where a dozen cases qualifies as an outbreak.

—Johnathan Gallardo and Mike Moore, The Billings (Montana) Gazette

transitive verb

: to identify and notify (someone) through contact tracing

When a first major outbreak hit Grand Forks, North Dakota, in April, the problem was clear: More than 150 employees of a wind turbine blade factory were infected. The factory shut its doors for several weeks, and public health officials tested and contact traced each case.

—Sarah Mervosh and Lucy Tompkins, The Houston Chronicle