U.S. CDC plans to improve international air contact tracing data collection

U.S. CDC plans to improve international air contact tracing data collection The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will take steps to improve collection of international air passenger contact information to better monitor public health risks after a report found the current data system "needs substantial improvement." David Shepardson Reuters

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday said, "limitations in how CDC collects and manages air passengers’ contact information - including CDC's use of an outdated data management system - hinder the agency’s ability to monitor public health risks and facilitate contact tracing."

Beginning in November 2021, the CDC required all airlines to collect contact tracing information from all international air passengers.

The report said the CDC's current data management system developed in the mid-2000s "was not designed for rapid assessment or aggregation of public health data" and the CDC "is unable to quickly and accurately identify the number of passengers exposed to a specific infected passenger on a flight."

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