<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
FRIDAY, June 19, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Combined isolation and tracing strategies can reduce COVID-19 transmission more than mass testing or self-isolation alone, according to a study published online June 16 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Adam J. Kucharski, Ph.D., from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and colleagues estimated the reduction in transmission under different control measures across settings using a model of individual-level transmission stratified by setting based on data from 40,162 U.K. participants. The effect of a range of testing, isolation, tracing, and physical distancing scenarios was simulated.<\/p>\n
The researchers estimated the transmission would be reduced more using combined isolation and tracing strategies compared with mass testing or self-isolation alone: The mean reductions in transmission were 2 percent for mass random testing of 5 percent of the population each week; 29 and 35 percent for self-isolation of symptomatic cases within the household and for self-isolation alone outside the household, respectively; 37 percent for self-isolation plus household quarantine; 64 percent for self-isolation and household quarantine plus manual contact tracing; and 57 and 47 percent with the addition of manual tracing of acquaintances only and with the addition of app-based tracing only, respectively. Manual contact tracing of acquaintances alone could have a transmission reduction effect similar to that of detailed contact tracing if limits were placed on gatherings outside of home, school, or work.<\/p>\n
“If you do not trace, you leave a chain of transmission free to grow undetected and exponentially,” writes the author of an accompanying editorial.<\/p>\n
Abstract\/Full Text<\/a><\/p>\n