Abstract
BackgroundThe first COVID-19 cases in Qatar were reported on 29 February 2020. As the epidemic progresses, essential epidemiological information is needed to facilitate monitoring of COVID-19 in the population and plan the pandemic response in Qatar.AimThe primary aim of this cross-sectional study is to estimate the point prevalence of COVID-19 in Qatar’s primary care registered population.Design & settingA cross-sectional study design will be utilised. One publicly funded health centre from each of three geographical regions in Qatar will be identified as a study location and set up to facilitate a drive-through for the study.MethodPrimary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) is publicly funded and the largest primary care provider in Qatar. The study will include randomly selected individuals from the full list of PHCC's registered population on its electronic medical records system. The sample selection will be done using a proportional to size sampling technique stratified by age, sex, and nationality representative of the overall PHCC-registered population. Considering the total population registered in PHCC, a sample of 2080 is proposed. A questionnaire will be administered to collect sociodemographic information, and nasal and throat swab samples will be taken. Data will be analysed to report overall symptomatic and asymptomatic point prevalence of COVID-19.ConclusionThis study, with the help of a randomly selected representative sample from Qatar’s primary care registered population, will provide results that can be applied to the entire population. This study design will closely represent a real-world scenario of the outbreak and is likely to provide important data to guide COVID-19 pandemic planning and response in Qatar.
Highlights
According to the World Health Organization's (WHO's) situation report, on 31 December 2019, Chinese national authorities reported an outbreak of pneumonia with unknown aetiology.[1]
This study, with the help of a randomly selected representative sample from Qatar’s primary care registered population, will provide results that can be applied to the entire population
This study protocol highlights how primary care can contribute to generating robust epidemiological information of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-C OV-2 in a timely manner to support monitoring using minimal resources
Summary
According to the World Health Organization's (WHO's) situation report, on 31 December 2019, Chinese national authorities reported an outbreak of pneumonia with unknown aetiology.[1]. The newly identified coronavirus with its epicentre in Wuhan was labelled severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-C oV-2), and is known as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-n CoV) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).[3]. First imported cases were reported in Japan, Thailand, and Republic of Korea between the 13 January and 20 January.[1] The first 1000 cases were infected within 48 days, which is a significant rate compared with SARS and MERS, which took 4 months and 2.5 years, respectively.[4] With 18 countries affected and as the outbreak continued to spread globally, the WHO declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on the 30 January 2020.5 With 118 000 cases in 114 countries, and 4291 deaths, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March 2020.6. Essential epidemiological information is needed to facilitate monitoring of COVID-19 in the population and plan the pandemic response in Qatar
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