The lab-confirmed interval of COVID-19 clusters and its application in the strength evaluation of prevention and control measures.
BMC Infect Dis
; 21(1): 226, 2021 Feb 27.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1105695
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The lab-confirmed interval is the date from lab confirmation in a core case (infector) to lab confirmation in a second case (infectee); however, its distribution and application are seldom reported. This study aimed to investigate the lab-confirmed interval and its application in the preliminary evaluation of the strength of disease prevention and control measures.METHODS:
Taking European countries and Chinese provinces outside Hubei as examples, we identified 63 infector-infectee pairs from European countries from Wikipedia, and 103 infector-infectee pairs from official public sources in Chinese provinces outside Hubei. The lab-confirmed intervals were obtained through analysis of the collected data and adopting the bootstrap method.RESULTS:
The mean lab-confirmed interval was 2.6 (95% CI 2.1-3.1) days for Europe and 2.6 (95% CI 1.9-3.3) days for China outside Hubei, which were shorter than the reported serial intervals. For index patients aged ≥60 years old, the lab-confirmed interval in Europe was slightly longer (mean 2.9; 95% CI 2.0-3.6) and obviously longer in China outside Hubei (mean 3.8; 95% CI 1.9-5.5) than that for patients aged < 60 years.CONCLUSION:
Investigation of the lab-confirmed interval can provide additional information on the characteristics of emergent outbreaks and can be a feasible indication to evaluate the strength of prevention and control measures. When the lab-confirmed interval was shorter than the serial interval, it could objectively reflect improvements in laboratory capacity and the surveillance of close contacts.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12879-021-05874-6
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