Monash University and Alfred Health have trialled the use of ID tags with bluetooth capabilities that will aid rapid contact tracing in the fight against COVID-19.

The study found that health workers wearing the tags could help pinpoint the spread of COVID, based on location data and interaction times.

“Within each room we installed beacon sensors which would identify each person entering the room based on their wearable identification tag and then transmit this data to a central receiver,” Monash engineering associate Professor Mehmet Yuc, who authored the study, said.

“The connectivity between the beacons, wearable tags and receivers meant that critical information was obtained instantaneously and could be analysed to inform appropriate infection prevention policies.”

Yuc stressed this system won’t replace other contact tracing measures.

“The introduction of an advanced contact tracing system, like the one we have been testing, would complement these measures by providing accurate contract tracing data that promises to contain possible outbreaks more efficiently, and with improved certainty,” he said.