COVID-19 Test Allocation Strategy to Mitigate SARS-CoV-2 Infections across School Districts.
Emerg Infect Dis
; 29(3): 501-510, 2023 03.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2244086
ABSTRACT
In response to COVID-19, schools across the United States closed in early 2020; many did not fully reopen until late 2021. Although regular testing of asymptomatic students, teachers, and staff can reduce transmission risks, few school systems consistently used proactive testing to safeguard return to classrooms. Socioeconomically diverse public school districts might vary testing levels across campuses to ensure fair, effective use of limited resources. We describe a test allocation approach to reduce overall infections and disparities across school districts. Using a model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools fit to data from a large metropolitan school district in Texas, we reduced incidence between the highest and lowest risk schools from a 5.6-fold difference under proportional test allocation to 1.8-fold difference under our optimized test allocation. This approach provides a roadmap to help school districts deploy proactive testing and mitigate risks of future SARS-CoV-2 variants and other pathogen threats.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Emerg Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
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