An SEIR network epidemic model with manual and digital contact tracing allowing delays

We consider an SEIR epidemic model on a network also allowing random contacts, where recovered individuals could either recover naturally or be diagnosed. Upon diagnosis, manual contact tracing is triggered such that each infected network contact is reported, tested and isolated with some probability and after a random delay. Additionally, digital tracing (based on a tracing app) is triggered if the diagnosed individual is an app-user, and then all of its app-using infectees are immediately notified and isolated. The early phase of the epidemic with manual and/or digital tracing is approximated by different multi-type branching processes, and three respective reproduction numbers are derived. The effectiveness of both contact tracing mechanisms is numerically quantified through the reduction of the reproduction number. This shows that app-using fraction plays an essential role in the overall effectiveness of contact tracing. The relative effectiveness of manual tracing compared to digital tracing increases if: more of the transmission occurs on the network, when the tracing delay is shortened, and when the network degree distribution is heavy-tailed. For realistic values, the combined tracing case can reduce R0 by 20%–30%, so other preventive measures are needed to reduce the reproduction number down to 1.2–1.4 for contact tracing to make it successful in avoiding big outbreaks. •Manual and digital contact tracing in a network epidemic allowing for delays.•Reproduction numbers are derived by multi-type branching process approximation.•The efficacy of digital tracing relies on the fraction of app-users being large.•Manual tracing is more effective with short delays, heavy-tailed degree distribution.