College Campuses and COVID-19 Mitigation: Clinical and Economic Value

Losina, Elena; Leifer, Valia P.; Millham, Lucia; Panella, Christopher; Hyle, Emily P; Mohareb, Amir M.; Neilan, Anne M.; Ciaranello, Andrea; Kazemian, Pooyan; Freedberg, Kenneth A.

doi:10.7326/m20-6558

Cited by 77 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Considering the global situation (including economic recession) and while we wait for most of the population to be vaccinated and/or for herd immunity to be achieved, our results should be interpreted as sufficient to support the current nonpharmacologic preventive measures taken, such as mask wearing, social distancing, hand hygiene (with hydroalcoholic gels), ventilated spaces and “sheltering in place” for a minimum of 10 days if in contact with an infected person. Extensive social distancing with a mandatory mask-wearing policy can prevent most COVID-19 cases on college campuses and is very cost-effective; and routine laboratory testing would prevent disease spread, but would require lower-cost tests combined with markedly increased capacity to be feasible [ 27 ]. However, given the lack of logistical and economic competences for implementing screening tests of SARS-CoV-2 infection, all this means that the university officers will face the challenge soon of slowly returning to pre-pandemic university activity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection at the University of Barcelona during the Third COVID-19 Pandemic Wave in Spain

Videla

Otero

Martí

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic started in December 2019 and still is a major global health challenge. Lockdown measures and social distancing sparked a global shift towards online learning, which deeply impacted universities’ daily life, and the University of Barcelona (UB) was not an exception. Accordingly, we aimed to determine the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic at the UB. To that end, we performed a cross-sectional study on a sample of 2784 UB members (n = 52,529). Participants answered a brief, ad hoc, online epidemiological questionnaire and provided a nasal swab for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) SARS-CoV-2 analysis and a venous blood sample for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody assay. Total prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection (positive RT-PCR or positive IgG) was 14.9% (95%CI 13.3 to 17.0%). Forty-four participants (1.6%, 95%CI: 1.2–2.1%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR. IgG against SARS-CoV-2 was observed in 12.8% (95%CI: 11.6–14.1%) of participants. Overall, while waiting for population vaccination and/or increased herd immunity, we should concentrate on identifying and isolating new cases and their contacts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection at the University of Barcelona during the Third COVID-19 Pandemic Wave in Spain

Videla

Otero

Martí

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…We previously used the CEACOV model to project COVID-19 clinical and economic outcomes in a variety of settings, including an analysis of non-pharmaceutical public health interventions in South Africa. [16][17][18][19] In this analysis, we focus on vaccination programs in South Africa and examine different implementation strategies and different vaccine characteristic and epidemic growth scenarios, thereby projecting which have the greatest impact on clinical and economic outcomes and cost-effectiveness.…”

Section: Analytic Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in South Africa

Reddy

Fitzmaurice

Scott

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Low- and middle-income countries are implementing COVID-19 vaccination strategies in light of varying and uncertain vaccine efficacies and costs, supply shortages, and resource constraints. We used a microsimulation model to evaluate clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccination program in South Africa. We varied vaccination coverage, pace, acceptance, effectiveness, and cost as well as epidemic dynamics. Providing vaccine to at least 40% of the population and prioritizing accelerated vaccine rollout prevented >9 million infections and >73,000 deaths and reduced costs due to fewer hospitalizations. Further, the vaccination program was cost-saving even at the lowest examined levels of acceptance (50%), effectiveness against infection (20%), effectiveness against symptomatic disease (30%), and effectiveness against severe/critical disease requiring hospitalization (40%), and with vaccination costs of up to USD25/person. In summary, a COVID-19 vaccination program would reduce both deaths and health care costs in South Africa across a wide range of assumptions. Vaccination program implementation factors, including prompt procurement, distribution, and rollout, are likely more influential than characteristics of the vaccine itself in maximizing public health benefits and economic efficiency.

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“…Mathematical models have been useful tools for exploring SARS-CoV-2 infection dynamics and the effects of a variety of mitigations on university campuses [14][15][16][17]. Here we used an agent-.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits of Surveillance Testing and Quarantine in a SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinated Population of Students on a University Campus

Motta

McGoff

Deckard

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Surveillance testing and quarantine have been effective measures for limiting SARS-CoV-2 transmission on university campuses. However, the importance of these measures needs to be re-evaluated in the context of a complex and rapidly changing environment that includes vaccines, variants, and waning immunity. Also, recent guidelines from the CDC suggest that vaccinated students do not need to participate in surveillance testing. We used an agent-based SEIR model to evaluate the utility of surveillance testing and quarantine in a fully vaccinated student population where vaccine effectiveness may be impacted by the type of vaccination, the presence of variants, and the loss of vaccine-induced or natural immunity over time. We found that weekly surveillance testing at 90% vaccine effectiveness only marginally reduces viral transmission as compared to no testing. However, at 50%-75% effectiveness, surveillance testing can provide over 10-fold reduction in the number of infections on campus over the course of the semester. We also show that a 10-day quarantine protocol for exposures has limited effect on infections until vaccine effectiveness drops to 50%, and that increased surveillance testing for exposures is at least as effective as quarantine at limiting infections. Together these findings provide a foundation for universities to design appropriate mitigation protocols for the 2021-2022 academic year.

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College Campuses and COVID-19 Mitigation: Clinical and Economic Value

Cited by 77 publications

References 17 publications

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection at the University of Barcelona during the Third COVID-19 Pandemic Wave in Spain

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection at the University of Barcelona during the Third COVID-19 Pandemic Wave in Spain

Clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in South Africa

Benefits of Surveillance Testing and Quarantine in a SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinated Population of Students on a University Campus

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