Frequency of Routine Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (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:10.1093/cid/ciaa1383

Frequency of Routine Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in High-risk Healthcare Environments to Reduce Outbreaks

Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Nov 2;73(9):e3127-e3129. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1383.

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, California, USA.
² Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
³ Center for Primary Care, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁴ Research and Population Health, Collective Health, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁵ School of Public Health, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom.

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

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Delivery of Health Care
Disease Outbreaks / prevention & control
Health Facilities
Humans
SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding