Frequency of routine testing for COVID-19 in high-risk healthcare environments to reduce outbreaks

Elizabeth T Chin; Benjamin Q Huynh; Lloyd A C Chapman; Matthew Murrill; Sanjay Basu; Nathan C Lo

doi:10.1101/2020.04.30.20087015

Frequency of routine testing for COVID-19 in high-risk healthcare environments to reduce outbreaks

medRxiv [Preprint]. 2020 Sep 9:2020.04.30.20087015. doi: 10.1101/2020.04.30.20087015.

Authors

Elizabeth T Chin¹, Benjamin Q Huynh¹, Lloyd A C Chapman², Matthew Murrill², Sanjay Basu^{3

4

5}, Nathan C Lo²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
² Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³ Center for Primary Care, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Research and Population Health, Collective Health, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁵ School of Public Health, Imperial College, London, UK.

Abstract

Routine asymptomatic testing strategies for COVID-19 have been proposed to prevent outbreaks in high-risk healthcare environments. We used simulation modeling to evaluate the optimal frequency of viral testing. We found that routine testing substantially reduces risk of outbreaks, but may need to be as frequent as twice weekly.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; epidemiology; infection control; pandemic.

Publication types

Preprint

Grants and funding

T15 LM007033/LM/NLM NIH HHS/United States