Testing and vaccination to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in nursing homes: an agent-based approach.
BMC Infect Dis
; 22(1): 477, 2022 May 19.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1951072
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Efforts to protect residents in nursing homes involve non-pharmaceutical interventions, testing, and vaccine. We sought to quantify the effect of testing and vaccine strategies on the attack rate, length of the epidemic, and hospitalization.METHODS:
We developed an agent-based model to simulate the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 transmission among resident and staff agents in a nursing home. Interactions between 172 residents and 170 staff based on data from a nursing home in Los Angeles, CA. Scenarios were simulated assuming different levels of non-pharmaceutical interventions, testing frequencies, and vaccine efficacy to reduce transmission.RESULTS:
Under the hypothetical scenario of widespread SARS-CoV-2 in the community, 3-day testing frequency minimized the attack rate and the time to eradicate an outbreak. Prioritization of vaccine among staff or staff and residents minimized the cumulative number of infections and hospitalization, particularly in the scenario of high probability of an introduction. Reducing the probability of a viral introduction eased the demand on testing and vaccination rate to decrease infections and hospitalizations.CONCLUSIONS:
Improving frequency of testing from 7-days to 3-days minimized the number of infections and hospitalizations, despite widespread community transmission. Vaccine prioritization of staff provides the best protection strategy when the risk of viral introduction is high.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12879-022-07385-4
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