tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Public Health
. 2020 Oct 21;S0033-3506(20)30450-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.10.008. Online ahead of print.
Routine testing of close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases - National COVID-19 Contact Management Programme, Ireland, May to August 2020
C Carroll[SUP] 1 [/SUP], R Conway[SUP] 2 [/SUP], D O'Donnell[SUP] 3 [/SUP], C Norton[SUP] 3 [/SUP], E Hogan[SUP] 4 [/SUP], M Browne[SUP] 4 [/SUP], C M Buckley[SUP] 5 [/SUP], P Kavanagh[SUP] 6 [/SUP], J Martin[SUP] 4 [/SUP], S Doyle[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Objectives: The objective of this study was to inform public health practitioners who are designing, adapting and implementing testing and tracing strategies for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) control.
Study design: The study design is monitoring and evaluation of a national public health protection programme.
Methods: All close contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 identified between the 19th May and 2nd August were included; secondary attack rates and numbers needed to test were estimated.
Results: Four thousand five hundred eighty six of 7272 (63%) close contacts of cases were tested with at least one test. The secondary attack rate in close contacts who were tested was 7% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 6.3 - 7.8%). At the 'day 0' test, 14.6% (95% CI: 11.6-17.6%) of symptomatic close contacts tested positive compared with 5.2% (95% CI: 4.4-5.9%) of asymptomatic close contacts.
Conclusions: The application of additional symptom-based criteria for testing in this high-incidence population (close contacts) is of limited utility because of the low negative predictive value of absence of symptoms.
Keywords: Asymptomatic COVID-19; Asymptomatic close contacts; COVID-19; Contact management programme; Coronavirus; Testing strategy.
. 2020 Oct 21;S0033-3506(20)30450-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.10.008. Online ahead of print.
Routine testing of close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases - National COVID-19 Contact Management Programme, Ireland, May to August 2020
C Carroll[SUP] 1 [/SUP], R Conway[SUP] 2 [/SUP], D O'Donnell[SUP] 3 [/SUP], C Norton[SUP] 3 [/SUP], E Hogan[SUP] 4 [/SUP], M Browne[SUP] 4 [/SUP], C M Buckley[SUP] 5 [/SUP], P Kavanagh[SUP] 6 [/SUP], J Martin[SUP] 4 [/SUP], S Doyle[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 33386140
- PMCID: PMC7577651
- DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.10.008
Abstract
Objectives: The objective of this study was to inform public health practitioners who are designing, adapting and implementing testing and tracing strategies for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) control.
Study design: The study design is monitoring and evaluation of a national public health protection programme.
Methods: All close contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 identified between the 19th May and 2nd August were included; secondary attack rates and numbers needed to test were estimated.
Results: Four thousand five hundred eighty six of 7272 (63%) close contacts of cases were tested with at least one test. The secondary attack rate in close contacts who were tested was 7% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 6.3 - 7.8%). At the 'day 0' test, 14.6% (95% CI: 11.6-17.6%) of symptomatic close contacts tested positive compared with 5.2% (95% CI: 4.4-5.9%) of asymptomatic close contacts.
Conclusions: The application of additional symptom-based criteria for testing in this high-incidence population (close contacts) is of limited utility because of the low negative predictive value of absence of symptoms.
Keywords: Asymptomatic COVID-19; Asymptomatic close contacts; COVID-19; Contact management programme; Coronavirus; Testing strategy.