Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
The Fourth People's Hospital of Chengdu, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jun 22;11:1062633. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1062633. eCollection 2023.
Coronavirus disease 2019 has become a major global public health concern in December 2019. However, finding and excluding close contacts of COVID-19 infectors is a critical but difficult issue. This study aimed to introduce a new method of epidemiological investigation named space-time companions, which was adopted in Chengdu, China, in November 2021.
An observational investigation was conducted during a small outbreak of COVID-19 in Chengdu, China in November 2021. A new method of epidemiological investigation called space-time companion was adopted in this outbreak, which was defined as the one who stayed in the same spatiotemporal grid (range: 800 m * 800 m) with the confirmed COVID-19 infector for more than 10 min in the last 14 days. A flow chart was used to describe the screening process of space-time companions in detail and illustrate the space-time companion epidemic management method.
The COVID-19 epidemic outbreak in Chengdu was effectively controlled for approximately one incubation period (14 days). After four rounds of space-time companions screening, more than 450,000 space-time companions were screened, including 27 COVID-19 infectors. Moreover, in the subsequent rounds of nucleic acid testing for all people in the city, no infected person were found proving the end of this epidemic outbreak.
The space-time companion provides a new idea for screening close contacts of the COVID-19 infector and other similar infectious diseases, which can serve as a supplement to traditional epidemiological history surveys to verify and avoid missing close contacts.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）已成为 2019 年 12 月全球主要的公共卫生关注点。然而，发现并排除 COVID-19 感染者的密切接触者是一个关键但困难的问题。本研究旨在介绍一种新的流行病学调查方法，称为时空伴随者，该方法于 2021 年 11 月在中国成都采用。
本研究对 2021 年 11 月中国成都的 COVID-19 小暴发进行了一项观察性调查。在此次暴发中采用了一种新的流行病学调查方法，称为时空伴随者，其定义为在过去 14 天内与确诊 COVID-19 感染者在同一时空网格（范围：800m*800m）中停留超过 10min 的人。采用流程图详细描述了时空伴随者的筛查过程，并说明了时空伴随者的疫情管理方法。
成都的 COVID-19 疫情暴发在大约一个潜伏期（14 天）内得到有效控制。经过四轮时空伴随者筛查，共筛查出 45 万多名时空伴随者，其中包括 27 名 COVID-19 感染者。此外，在随后对全市所有人进行的多轮核酸检测中，均未发现感染者，证明此次疫情暴发已结束。
时空伴随者为筛查 COVID-19 感染者及其它类似传染病的密切接触者提供了新的思路，可作为传统流行病学史调查的补充，以验证和避免漏报密切接触者。
