Proposal for the control and mitigation of COVID-19 dissemination: strategic management of the quarantine Propuestas para el control y la mitigación de la diseminación de COVID-19: un manejo estratégico de la cuarentena

RIVERO, MARIANO; IRAZUSTA, VERÓNICA PATRICIA; RAJAL, VERÓNICA BEATRIZ; GUTIÉRREZ-CACCIABUE, DOLORES

REVISTA ARGENTINA DE MICROBIOLOGíA

ASOCIACION ARGENTINA MICROBIOLOGIA

Año: 2020

0325-7541

COVID-19 spread rapidly throughout the world, leading most of the affected countries to close their borders and to establish lockdown in different versions. Three months after the pandemic started, many countries are making decisions tending to relax the lockdown, although without a vaccine or treatment capable of confronting SARS-CoV-2 infection, the situation could be reversed at any time. In this context, the aim of this work was to propose a decision algorithm that will allow the optimization of asymptomatic case detections and the strategic management of quarantine to prevent the spread of the virus and to allow a new controlled normality. This tentative proposal was developed to optimize the number of tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, analyzing composite samples (group analysis) that combine individual ones taken from different people that integrate the group of interest. Groups were defined according to their critical role in society and/or because they belong to vulnerable groups. The algorithm takes into account the following variables: group priority, number of members within the group, intragroup and intergroup contact, contact vulnerability due to the activity, and time elapsed since last testing. The proposed tool rationally allows to establish a priority order to assess critical groups in society. Furthermore, this tool could optimize the available resources, reducing the impact on a region´s health, society, and economy.