From the School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Epidemiology. 2022 Mar 1;33(2):209-216. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001448.
Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, college campuses faced uncertainty regarding the likely prevalence and spread of disease, necessitating large-scale testing to help guide policy following re-entry.
A SARS-CoV-2 testing program combining pooled saliva sample surveillance leading to diagnosis and intervention surveyed over 112,000 samples from 18,029 students, staff and faculty, as part of integrative efforts to mitigate transmission at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Fall 2020.
Cumulatively, we confirmed 1,508 individuals diagnostically, 62% of these through the surveillance program and the remainder through diagnostic tests of symptomatic individuals administered on or off campus. The total strategy, including intensification of testing given case clusters early in the semester, was associated with reduced transmission following rapid case increases upon entry in Fall semester in August 2020, again in early November 2020, and upon re-entry for Spring semester in January 2021. During the Fall semester daily asymptomatic test positivity initially peaked at 4.1% but fell below 0.5% by mid-semester, averaging 0.84% across the Fall semester, with similar levels of control in Spring 2021.
Owing to broad adoption by the campus community, we estimate that the program protected higher risk staff and faculty while allowing some normalization of education and research activities.
在 COVID-19 大流行的六个月中，大学校园面临着疾病可能的流行和传播的不确定性，需要进行大规模的检测，以帮助指导重新进入后的政策。
作为佐治亚理工学院综合努力的一部分，一项结合了汇集唾液样本监测以进行诊断和干预的 SARS-CoV-2 检测计划，对 18029 名学生、教职员工中的超过 112000 个样本进行了调查，以帮助降低 2020 年秋季的传播风险。
累计确诊 1508 人，其中 62%是通过监测计划发现的，其余是通过对校园内或校外出现症状的个体进行诊断性检测发现的。总的策略，包括在学期初出现病例群时加强检测，与 2020 年 8 月秋季学期开学后病例迅速增加时、11 月初再次、以及 2021 年 1 月春季学期重新进入时的传播减少有关。在秋季学期，无症状检测阳性的日发病率最初达到 4.1%，但在学期中期下降到 0.5%以下，秋季学期平均为 0.84%，2021 年春季也有类似的控制水平。
由于校园社区的广泛采用，我们估计该计划保护了高风险的教职员工，同时允许一些教育和研究活动的正常化。
