Mass Testing with Contact Tracing Compared to Test and Trace for Effective Suppression of COVID-19 in the UK: A rapid review

Abstract

BackgroundMaking testing available to everyone and tracing contacts might be the gold standard towards the control of COVID-19, particularly when significant transmissions are without symptoms. This study evaluated the effectiveness of mass testing and contact tracing in the suppression of COVID-19 compared to conventional Test and Trace in the UK.DesignA rapid review of available evidencePrimary research questionIs there evidence that mass testing and tracing could suppress community spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections better than Test and Trace?Secondary research questionWhat is the proportion of asymptomatic cases of SARS-CoV-2 reported during mass testing interventions?MethodsLiterature was searched in September through December 2020 in Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Mendeley and PubMed.ResultsLiterature search yielded 286 articles from Google Scholar, 20 from Science Direct, 14 from Mendeley, 27 from Pubmed and 15 through manual search. Altogether 35 articles were included, making a sample size of close to a million participants.ConclusionThere was a very low level but promising evidence of 76.9% (95% CI: 46.2 – 95.0, P=0.09) majority vote in favour of the intervention under the primary objective. The overall proportion of asymptomatic cases among those tested positive and tested sample populations under the secondary objective was 40.7% (95% CI: 38.8– 42.5) and 0.01% (95% CI: 0.01 – 0.012) respectively. Conventional test and trace should be superseded by a decentralised and regular mass rapid testing and contact tracing, championed by GP surgeries and low cost community services.