Published June 29, 2021, 8:48 AM BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization’s European regional office have developed a tool to evaluate the public health effectiveness of contact tracing solutions, according to a statement on Monday. The tool, described as an indicator framework, will provide countries with a standardized approach for evaluating their use of digital proximity tracing solutions. It will also assess the extent to which these solutions have aided national contact tracing strategies for COVID-19, an ECDC statement noted. Countries have employed innovative technologies throughout the pandemic to support the implementation of public health and social measures. Digital proximity tracing, by using smartphones or other devices to capture anonymized interactions between individuals and which would then issue alerts, emerged as a new means of support for contact tracing programs.