A framework for identifying regional outbreak and spread of COVID-19 from one-minute population-wide surveys

Hagai Rossman; Ayya Keshet; Smadar Shilo; Amir Gavrieli; Tal Bauman; Ori Cohen; Ran Balicer; Benjamin Geiger; Yuval Dor; Eran Segal

The survey contains questions on age, gender, geographic location (city, street, zip code), isolation status and smoking habits. Furthermore, responders were asked to report whether they experience symptoms which were defined as common symptoms of COVID-19 by healthcare professionals based on the existing literature 6 . Several other symptoms which are not common in patients with COVID-19 infection but are common in other infectious diseases were also included to discern possible COVID-19 patients.. The symptoms that were included are cough, fatigue, myalgia (muscle pain), shortness of breath, rhinorrhea or nasal congestion, diarrhea and nausea or vomiting. In addition, participants were asked about the existence of one of the following chronic health conditions: Diabetes mellitus, Hypertension, Ischemic heart disease, Asthma, chronic lung disease and chronic kidney disease. Participants were also asked to measure their daily body temperature and document it in the questionnaire (Figure 1 ). The number of reported symptoms divided by the number of symptoms in our predefined list. Symptoms in this list were predefined by the Israeli MOH and included: shortness of breath, fatigue, cough, muscle pains and a high fever (body temperature of over 38 degrees celsius). For responders under the age of 18nausea or vomiting was also included in the calculation.