Abstract
BackgroundSurveillance testing within healthcare facilities provides an opportunity to prevent severe outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the quantitative impact of different available surveillance strategies and their potential to decrease the frequency of outbreaks are not well-understood.MethodsWe establish an individual-based model representative of a mental health hospital yielding generalizable results. Attributes and features of this facility were derived from a prototypical hospital, which provides psychiatric, psychosomatic and psychotherapeutic treatment. We estimate the relative reduction of outbreak probability for three test strategies (entry test, once-weekly test and twice-weekly test) relative to a symptom-based baseline strategy. Based on our findings, we propose determinants of successful surveillance measures.ResultsEntry Testing reduced the outbreak probability by 26%, additionally testing once or twice weekly reduced the outbreak probability by 49% or 67% respectively. We found that fast diagnostic test results and adequate compliance of the clinic population are mandatory for conducting effective surveillance. The robustness of these results towards uncertainties is demonstrated via comprehensive sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsWe conclude that active testing in mental health hospitals and similar facilities considerably reduces the number of COVID-19 outbreaks compared to symptom-based surveillance only.
Highlights
Surveillance testing within healthcare facilities provides an opportunity to prevent severe outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
The best guess outbreak probability reductions were mostly robust to variations of parameters and the large number of simulations conducted lead to narrow stochastic uncertainties
The sensitivity of the diagnostic test and compliance of the clinic population critically determined the efficacy of the strategy
Summary
Surveillance testing within healthcare facilities provides an opportunity to prevent severe outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Existing COVID-19 surveillance strategies revolve around detection of infected individuals in order to Litwin et al BMC Infectious Diseases (2022) 22:105 isolate them and their close contacts To this end, possible infections are commonly confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests [4]. The use of point-of-care (PoC) tests in the form of faster but less sensitive antigen tests has been proposed Those tests might only detect individuals with high enough viral loads to be infectious [5], the fact that those tests can be carried out by each individual autonomously allows to make at least a tentative COVID-19 diagnosis with greater flexibility and in a less centralized manner. This highlights their possible use for surveillance in single institutions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
