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Local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a SARS-CoV-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in Antwerp, Belgium

In Antwerp, Belgium's second largest city, a COVID-19 surge in July 2020 predominantly affected neighborhoods with high ethnic diversity. Local volunteers reacted and set up an initiative to support contact tracing and self-isolation. We describe the origin, implementation, and transfer of this...

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Autores principales: Verdonck, Kristien, Morreel, Stefan, Vanhamel, Jef, Vuylsteke, Bea, Nöstlinger, Christiana, Laga, Marie, van Olmen, Josefien
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10196007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37213599
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1000617
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author Verdonck, Kristien
Morreel, Stefan
Vanhamel, Jef
Vuylsteke, Bea
Nöstlinger, Christiana
Laga, Marie
van Olmen, Josefien
author_facet Verdonck, Kristien
Morreel, Stefan
Vanhamel, Jef
Vuylsteke, Bea
Nöstlinger, Christiana
Laga, Marie
van Olmen, Josefien
author_sort Verdonck, Kristien
collection PubMed
description In Antwerp, Belgium's second largest city, a COVID-19 surge in July 2020 predominantly affected neighborhoods with high ethnic diversity. Local volunteers reacted and set up an initiative to support contact tracing and self-isolation. We describe the origin, implementation, and transfer of this local initiative, based on semi-structured interviews of five key informants and document review. The initiative started in July 2020, when family physicians signaled a surge of SARS-CoV-2 infections among people of Moroccan descent. Family physicians feared that the mainstream contact tracing organized by the Flemish government through centralized call centers would not be efficient in halting this outbreak. They anticipated language barriers, mistrust, inability to investigate case clusters, and practical problems with self-isolation. It took 11 days to start up the initiative, with logistical support from the province and city of Antwerp. Family physicians referred SARS-CoV-2-infected index cases with complex needs (including language and social situation) to the initiative. Volunteer COVID coaches contacted cases, got a contextualized understanding of their living conditions, assisted with backward and forward contact tracing, offered support during self-isolation, and checked if infected contacts also needed support. Interviewed coaches were positive about the quality of the interaction: they described extensive open conversations with cases. The coaches reported back to referring family physicians and coordinators of the local initiative, who took additional action if necessary. Although interactions with affected communities were perceived as good, respondents considered that the number of referrals by family physicians was too low to have a meaningful impact on the outbreak. In September 2020, the Flemish government assigned the tasks of local contact tracing and case support to the local health system level (primary care zones). While doing so, they adopted elements of this local initiative, such as COVID coaches, tracing system, and extended questionnaires to talk with cases and contacts. This community case study illustrates how urgency can motivate people to action yet support from people with access to resources and coordination capacity is vital for effective organization and transition to long-term sustainability. From their conception, health policies should consider adaptability of new interventions to local contexts.
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spelling pubmed-101960072023-05-20 Local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a SARS-CoV-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in Antwerp, Belgium Verdonck, Kristien Morreel, Stefan Vanhamel, Jef Vuylsteke, Bea Nöstlinger, Christiana Laga, Marie van Olmen, Josefien Front Public Health Public Health In Antwerp, Belgium's second largest city, a COVID-19 surge in July 2020 predominantly affected neighborhoods with high ethnic diversity. Local volunteers reacted and set up an initiative to support contact tracing and self-isolation. We describe the origin, implementation, and transfer of this local initiative, based on semi-structured interviews of five key informants and document review. The initiative started in July 2020, when family physicians signaled a surge of SARS-CoV-2 infections among people of Moroccan descent. Family physicians feared that the mainstream contact tracing organized by the Flemish government through centralized call centers would not be efficient in halting this outbreak. They anticipated language barriers, mistrust, inability to investigate case clusters, and practical problems with self-isolation. It took 11 days to start up the initiative, with logistical support from the province and city of Antwerp. Family physicians referred SARS-CoV-2-infected index cases with complex needs (including language and social situation) to the initiative. Volunteer COVID coaches contacted cases, got a contextualized understanding of their living conditions, assisted with backward and forward contact tracing, offered support during self-isolation, and checked if infected contacts also needed support. Interviewed coaches were positive about the quality of the interaction: they described extensive open conversations with cases. The coaches reported back to referring family physicians and coordinators of the local initiative, who took additional action if necessary. Although interactions with affected communities were perceived as good, respondents considered that the number of referrals by family physicians was too low to have a meaningful impact on the outbreak. In September 2020, the Flemish government assigned the tasks of local contact tracing and case support to the local health system level (primary care zones). While doing so, they adopted elements of this local initiative, such as COVID coaches, tracing system, and extended questionnaires to talk with cases and contacts. This community case study illustrates how urgency can motivate people to action yet support from people with access to resources and coordination capacity is vital for effective organization and transition to long-term sustainability. From their conception, health policies should consider adaptability of new interventions to local contexts. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-05-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10196007/ /pubmed/37213599 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1000617 Text en Copyright © 2023 Verdonck, Morreel, Vanhamel, Vuylsteke, Nöstlinger, Laga and van Olmen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Verdonck, Kristien
Morreel, Stefan
Vanhamel, Jef
Vuylsteke, Bea
Nöstlinger, Christiana
Laga, Marie
van Olmen, Josefien
Local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a SARS-CoV-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in Antwerp, Belgium
title Local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a SARS-CoV-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in Antwerp, Belgium
title_full Local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a SARS-CoV-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in Antwerp, Belgium
title_fullStr Local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a SARS-CoV-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in Antwerp, Belgium
title_full_unstemmed Local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a SARS-CoV-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in Antwerp, Belgium
title_short Local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a SARS-CoV-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in Antwerp, Belgium
title_sort local initiative supports case isolation and contact tracing during a sars-cov-2 surge in summer 2020: a community case study in antwerp, belgium
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10196007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37213599
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1000617
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