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

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dc.contributor.authorRabil, Marie Jeanne
dc.contributor.authorTunc, Sait
dc.contributor.authorBish, Douglas R.
dc.contributor.authorBish, Ebru K.
dc.contributor.otherVirginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-28T19:37:18Z
dc.date.available2023-09-28T19:37:18Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractAs 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.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationRabil, M. J., Tunc, S., Bish, D. R., & Bish, E. K. (2022). Effective screening strategies for safe opening of universities under Omicron and Delta variants of COVID-19. In Scientific Reports (Vol. 12, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25801-2
dc.identifier.doi10.1038/s41598-022-25801-2
dc.identifier.urihttps://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/11618
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherNature Portfolio
dc.rights.licenseAttribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectMultidisciplinary Sciences
dc.titleEffective screening strategies for safe opening of universities under Omicron and Delta variants of COVID-19en_US
dc.typeArticle
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