Effective screening strategies for safe opening of universities under Omicron and Delta variants of COVID-19

Abstract

As new COVID-19 variants emerge, and disease and population characteristics change, screening strategies may also need to change. We develop a decision-making model that can assist a college to determine an optimal screening strategy based on their characteristics and resources, considering COVID-19 infections/hospitalizations/deaths; peak daily hospitalizations; and the tests required. We also use this tool to generate screening guidelines for the safe opening of college campuses. Our compartmental model simulates disease spread on a hypothetical college campus under co-circulating variants with different disease dynamics, considering: (i) the heterogeneity in disease transmission and outcomes for faculty/staff and students based on vaccination status and level of natural immunity; and (ii) variant- and dose-dependent vaccine efficacy. Using the Spring 2022 academic semester as a case study, we study routine screening strategies, and find that screening the faculty/staff less frequently than the students, and/or the boosted and vaccinated less frequently than the unvaccinated, may avert a higher number of infections per test, compared to universal screening of the entire population at a common frequency. We also discuss key policy issues, including the need to revisit the mitigation objective over time, effective strategies that are informed by booster coverage, and if and when screening alone can compensate for low booster coverage.

Incorporating social determinants of health into transmission modeling of COVID-19 vaccine in the US: a scoping review

“…The study setting was the US in 80 studies, and the US combined with other countries in 12 studies. 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 The target population was the general population in 68 studies and specific sub-populations in 24 studies, including university population (n = 11), 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 school population (n = 5), 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 congregation setting population (n = 5), 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 children (n = 2), 18 , 49 and wildland firefighting workforce (n = 1). 50 Vaccine intervention strategies were studied interventions in 69 studies, and vaccines combined with other strategies (including non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and screening) in 23 studies.…”

“… 50 Vaccine intervention strategies were studied interventions in 69 studies, and vaccines combined with other strategies (including non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and screening) in 23 studies. 23 , 27 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 33 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 Seventy-three studies used compartmental models, and agent-based models were employed in 19 studies. 23 , 24 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 50 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 Table 1 shows the summary of study characteristics included in this review, and a full description of included studies can be found in Supplementary Table S1 in Supplementary Material.…”

Screening Technologies to Support Infection Prevention and Control in Long-Term Care

“…Both in-person and virtual screening technology implementations require the compliance of participants in the screening procedure. Screening compliance reportedly leads to fewer infections in the modeling of screening strategies (Rabil et al, 2022), and therefore the level of participation required is an important consideration in screening procedures. In a study by Kennedy et al (2021) front-door screeners reported that although they felt the majority of those being screened were often or always willing to participate found that some ignored, refused, or avoided screening stations.…”