Wallis, Gabriel;
Siracusa, Francesca;
Blank, Michael;
Painter, Helena;
Sanchez, Javier;
Salinas, Kelcy;
Mamuyac, Cherifer;
... Whittington, Ashley; + view all
(2020)
Experience of a novel community testing programme for COVID-19 in London: Lessons learnt.
Clinical Medicine Journal
, 20
(5)
e165-e169.
10.7861/clinmed.2020-0436.
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Abstract
We describe the London community testing programme developed for COVID-19, audit its effectiveness and report patient acceptability and patient adherence to isolation guidance, based upon a survey conducted with participants. Any patients meeting the Public Health England (PHE) case definition for COVID-19 who did not require hospital admission were eligible for community testing. 2,053 patients with suspected COVID-19 were tested in the community between January and March 2020. Of those tested, 75 (3.6%) were positive. 88% of patients that completed a patient survey felt safe and 82% agreed that community testing was preferable to hospital admission. 97% were able to remain within their own home during the isolation period but just 41% were able to reliably isolate from other members of their household. The London community testing programme allowed widespread testing for COVID-19 while minimising patient transport, hospital admissions and staff exposures. Community testing was acceptable to patients and preferable to admission to hospital. Patients were able to reliably isolate in their home but not from household contacts. The authors believe in the importance, feasibility and acceptability of community testing for COVID-19 as a part of a package of interventions to mitigate a second wave of infection.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Experience of a novel community testing programme for COVID-19 in London: Lessons learnt |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0436 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2020-0436 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, community screening, self-isolation, HCID, survey |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Inst of Clinical Trials and Methodology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Inst of Clinical Trials and Methodology > MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10184150 |
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