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Mitigating COVID-19 Transmission in Schools With Digital Contact Tracing

Precision mitigation of COVID-19 is in pressing need for postpandemic time with the absence of pharmaceutical interventions. In this study, the effectiveness and cost of digital contact tracing (DCT) technology-based on-campus mitigation strategy are studied through epidemic simulations using high-r...

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Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: IEEE 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8843051/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35582036
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2021.3073109
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description Precision mitigation of COVID-19 is in pressing need for postpandemic time with the absence of pharmaceutical interventions. In this study, the effectiveness and cost of digital contact tracing (DCT) technology-based on-campus mitigation strategy are studied through epidemic simulations using high-resolution empirical contact networks of teachers and students. Compared with traditional class, grade, and school closure strategies, the DCT-based strategy offers a practical yet much more efficient way of mitigating COVID-19 spreading in the crowded campus. Specifically, the strategy based on DCT can achieve the same level of disease control as rigid school suspensions but with significantly fewer students quarantined. We further explore the necessary conditions to ensure the effectiveness of DCT-based strategy and auxiliary strategies to enhance mitigation effectiveness and make the following recommendation: social distancing should be implemented along with DCT, the adoption rate of DCT devices should be assured, and swift virus tests should be carried out to discover asymptomatic infections and stop their subsequent transmissions. We also argue that primary schools have higher disease transmission risks than high schools and, thereby, should be alerted when considering reopenings.
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spelling pubmed-88430512022-05-13 Mitigating COVID-19 Transmission in Schools With Digital Contact Tracing IEEE Trans Comput Soc Syst Article Precision mitigation of COVID-19 is in pressing need for postpandemic time with the absence of pharmaceutical interventions. In this study, the effectiveness and cost of digital contact tracing (DCT) technology-based on-campus mitigation strategy are studied through epidemic simulations using high-resolution empirical contact networks of teachers and students. Compared with traditional class, grade, and school closure strategies, the DCT-based strategy offers a practical yet much more efficient way of mitigating COVID-19 spreading in the crowded campus. Specifically, the strategy based on DCT can achieve the same level of disease control as rigid school suspensions but with significantly fewer students quarantined. We further explore the necessary conditions to ensure the effectiveness of DCT-based strategy and auxiliary strategies to enhance mitigation effectiveness and make the following recommendation: social distancing should be implemented along with DCT, the adoption rate of DCT devices should be assured, and swift virus tests should be carried out to discover asymptomatic infections and stop their subsequent transmissions. We also argue that primary schools have higher disease transmission risks than high schools and, thereby, should be alerted when considering reopenings. IEEE 2021-04-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8843051/ /pubmed/35582036 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2021.3073109 Text en https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.htmlPersonal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
spellingShingle Article
Mitigating COVID-19 Transmission in Schools With Digital Contact Tracing
title Mitigating COVID-19 Transmission in Schools With Digital Contact Tracing
title_full Mitigating COVID-19 Transmission in Schools With Digital Contact Tracing
title_fullStr Mitigating COVID-19 Transmission in Schools With Digital Contact Tracing
title_full_unstemmed Mitigating COVID-19 Transmission in Schools With Digital Contact Tracing
title_short Mitigating COVID-19 Transmission in Schools With Digital Contact Tracing
title_sort mitigating covid-19 transmission in schools with digital contact tracing
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8843051/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35582036
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2021.3073109
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