Dr. Stanca M. Ciupe

The role of testing in COVID-19 control

Abstract

Vaccination is considered the best strategy for limiting and eliminating the COVID-19 pandemic. The success of this strategy relies on the rate of vaccine deployment and acceptance across the globe. As these efforts are being conducted, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is continuously mutating, which leads to the emergence of variants with increased transmissibility, virulence, and lower response to vaccines. One important question is whether surveillance testing is still needed in order to limit SARS-CoV-2 transmission in an increasingly vaccinated population. In this talk, I will present multi-scale immuno-epidemiological mathematical models of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and use them to determine the effects of vaccine uptake; surveillance testing with tests of different sensitivity, cost, testing frequency, and delay in test return; and testing strategies in limiting an outbreak with variants of increased infectiousness.

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