Tool lets people know their personal risk of catching Covid-19

A global effort by more than 150 scientists from 35 countries, including researchers at the University of Auckland, has led to an online tool that lets an individual assess their personal risk of contracting Covid-19.

Called Your Covid-19 Risk, the web-based tool takes a person through a brief series of questions. Based on those responses, a clever set of algorithms comes up with an estimate of the person’s individual risk of getting or transmitting Covid-19.

Amy Chan, a senior clinical research fellow at the Pharmacy School at the University of Auckland was one of the team working on the tool. She says, "We wanted a way for individuals to not only know their risk but also what behaviours they could change to reduce that risk, either to themselves or their loved ones.”

Dr Chan researches how people behave in response to medical advice, in particular, the taking of regular medication. Her expertise in behaviour change was part of a complex mix of disciplines required to create the Your Covid-19 Risk tool that included epidemiologists, public health experts, virologists and infectious disease specialists.

She says, "As we return to normal life, we need to remain wary to prevent further transmission and outbreaks of Covid-19. It might be some time before a vaccines is developed and so in the meantime, the main thing we can do is to reduce our risk.”

With input from 35 countries, the tool is available in the world’s main languages and using individual country risk estimates, enables someone to gauge their risk should they travel to another country.

When the tool was released in the Netherlands, it had more than 30,000 users in the first 24 hours. The tool is now available for New Zealanders.

Chan says, “It’s easy to access and costs nothing except a few minutes of your time. We believe if you use your individual risk estimate, it is more likely to result in positive behaviour change.”