Frequent testing can help eradicate COVID-19 within weeks: Study

COLARADO: A study by University of Colorado (CU) Boulder and Harvard University researchers found out that frequent and rapid testing can eradicate COVID-19 within weeks. The study, published in Science Advances, mentioned that frequency of testing is much more important than sensitivity in cutting the spread of COVID-19.

Daniel Larremore, Assistant Professor, CU Boulder, said that the findings of the study states that when it comes to public health, it is better to have the results sooner with less sensitivity than later with higher sensitivity. He also added that instead of giving ‘stay-at-home’ orders to everyone, it should be given to the contagious ones so that everybody who are healthy can move out.

The study describes the viral load climbs and falls inside the body during infection when people experience symptoms and when they become infected. In the next step, they used a mathematical model to show the impact of screening with different kinds of tests on three conditions: in 10,000 individuals, university type setting of 20,000 individuals and a city of 8.4 million.

The reason for the findings, as stated by the authors, was because two-thirds of infected people have no symptoms and as they wait for their results, they continue to spread the virus.