Mass Testing with Contact Tracing Compared to Test and Trace for Effective Suppression of COVID-19 in the UK: A rapid review

Mbwogge, M.

Abstract Background: Making testing available to everyone and tracing contacts might be the gold standard towards the control of COVID-19, particularly when significant transmissions are without symptoms. This study evaluated the effectiveness of mass testing and contact tracing in the suppression of COVID-19 compared to conventional Test and Trace in the UK. Design: A rapid review of available evidence Primary research question: Is there evidence that mass testing and tracing could suppress community spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections better than Test and Trace? Secondary research question: What is the proportion of asymptomatic cases of SARS-CoV-2 reported during mass testing interventions? Methods: Literature was searched in September through December 2020 in Google Scholar, Science Direct, Mendeley and PubMed. Results: Literature search yielded 286 articles from Google Scholar, 20 from Science Direct, 14 from Mendeley, 27 from Pubmed and 15 through manual search. Altogether 35 articles were included, making a sample size of close to a million participants. Conclusion: There was a very low level but promising evidence of 76{middle dot}9% (95% CI: 46{middle dot}2 - 95{middle dot}0, P=0{middle dot}09) majority vote in favour of the intervention under the primary objective. The overall proportion of asymptomatic cases among those tested positive and tested sample populations under the secondary objective was 40{middle dot}7% (95% CI:38{middle dot}8 - 42{middle dot}5) and 0{middle dot}01% (95% CI:0{middle dot}01 - 0{middle dot}012) respectively. Conventional test and trace should be superseded by a decentralised and regular mass rapid testing and contact tracing, championed by GP surgeries and low cost community services