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The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had highly transmissible and pathogenic, which caused serious economic loss and hazard to public health. Different countries have developed strategies to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic that fit their epidemiological situations, capacities, and values. Mass screening combined with control measures rapidly reduced the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically highlighted the essential role of diagnostics capacity in the control of communicable diseases. Mass screening has been increasingly used to detect suspected COVID-19 cases and their close contacts, asymptomatic case, patients attending fever clinics, high-risk populations, employees, even all population to identify infectious individuals. Mass screening is a key component to fight against SARS-CoV-2 and return to normalcy. Here we describe the history of mass screening, define the scope of mass screening, describe its application scenarios, and discuss the impact and challenges of using this approach to control COVID-19. We conclude that through a comprehension screening program and strong testing capabilities, mass screening could help us return to normalcy more quickly.

While many countries employed digital contact tracing to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the contribution of cospace-time interaction (i.e., individuals who shared the same space and time) to transmission and to super-spreading in the real world has seldom been systematically studied due to the lack of systematic sampling and testing of contacts. To address this issue, we utilized data from 2230 cases and 220,878 contacts with detailed epidemiological information during the Omicron outbreak in Beijing in 2022. We observed that contact number per day of tracing for individuals in dwelling, workplace, cospace-time interactions, and community settings could be described by gamma distribution with distinct parameters. Our findings revealed that 38% of traced transmissions occurred through cospace-time interactions whilst control measures were in place. However, using a mathematical model to incorporate contacts in different locations, we found that without control measures, cospace-time interactions contributed to only 11% (95%CI: 10%–12%) of transmissions and the super-spreading risk for this setting was 4% (95%CI: 3%–5%), both the lowest among all settings studied. These results suggest that public health measures should be optimized to achieve a balance between the benefits of digital contact tracing for cospace-time interactions and the challenges posed by contact tracing within the same setting. Digital contact tracing was widely adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic to enable identification of incidental 'cospace-time' interactions with people who were not close contacts. Here the authors evaluate the effectiveness of digital contact tracing using data from Beijing, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A surge in the number of international arrivals awaiting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) screening overwhelmed healthcare workers and depleted medical resources in designated hospitals in Beijing, China in March 2020. The People's Government of Beijing Municipality therefore issued a policy which required the mandatory transfer of all asymptomatic passengers arriving from a foreign country to designated quarantine hotels, and the transfer of passengers with fever or respiratory symptoms to designated hospitals. Xiaotangshan Designated Hospital, a severe acute respiratory syndrome hospital in 2003, was rapidly renovated and put into operation with the main tasks of screening and isolating symptomatic international arrivals at Beijing Capital International Airport, providing basic medical care for mild to moderate COVID-19-positive cases, and rapidly referring severe to critical COVID-19-positive cases to higher-level hospitals. During the month-long period of its operation, 2171 passengers were screened and 53 were confirmed as having COVID-19 (six severe to critical). We describe how the use of Xiaotangshan Designated Hospital in this way enabled the efficient grouping and assessment of passengers arriving from a foreign country, the provision of optimal patient care without compromising public safety and the prioritization of critically ill patients requiring life-saving treatment. The designated hospital is a successful example of the World Health Organization's recommendation to renovate existing medical infrastructures to improve the COVID-19 response capacity. The flexible design of Xiaotangshan Designated Hospital means that it can be repurposed and reopened at any time to respond to the changing pandemic conditions. En mars 2020, la brusque hausse du nombre d'arrivees internationales en attente de depistage de la maladie a coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) a submerge les professionnels de la sante et epuise les ressources medicales dans les hopitaux de reference a Beijing, en Chine. Le gouvernement populaire de la municipalite de Beijing a reagi en ordonnant que tous les passagers asymptomatiques en provenance d'un pays etranger soient transferes vers des hotels reconvertis en centres de quarantaine, et que ceux manifestant de la fievre ou des symptomes respiratoires soient envoyes dans des hopitaux de reference. L'hopital de reference Xiaotangshan, construit en 2003 pour lutter contre le syndrome respiratoire aigu severe, a rapidement ete renove et mis en service. Ses taches principales: depister et isoler les passagers internationaux symptomatiques debarquant au Beijing Capital International Airport, prodiguer les soins medicaux de base aux cas positifs de COVID-19 souffrant d'une forme legere a moderee, et adresser des que possible les cas positifs de COVID-19 dans un etat grave ou critique aux hopitaux specialises. En l'espace d'un mois, 2171 passagers ont ete testes et 53 se sont reveles positifs a la COVID-19 (6 etant dans un etat grave ou critique). Nous decrivons la facon dont l'hopital de reference Xiaotangshan a ainsi permis de regrouper et d'evaluer efficacement les arrivees en provenance de l'etranger, d'offrir une prise en charge optimale des patients sans compromettre la securite publique, et d'etablir des priorites afin que les malades gravement atteints puissent beneficier d'un traitement dans les plus brefs delais. Cet hopital de reference est un exemple reussi de la mise en oeuvre de la recommandation formulee par l'Organisation mondiale de la Sante: renover les infrastructures medicales existantes afin d'ameliorer les capacites de lutte contre la COVID-19. Grace a sa conception flexible, l'hopital Xiaotangshan peut etre reutilise et rouvert a n'importe quel moment pour reagir a un contexte pandemique en perpetuelle evolution. Un aumento del numero de llegadas de vuelos internacionales en espera de la deteccion del Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) sobrecargo al personal sanitario y agoto los recursos medicos en los hospitales designados de Pekin (China) en marzo de 2020. Por lo tanto, la policia del Gobierno Popular del municipio de Pekin se tuvo que hacer cargo del traslado obligatorio de todos los pasajeros asintomaticos que llegaran de un pais extranjero a los hoteles de cuarentena designados, y el traslado de los pasajeros con fiebre o sintomas respiratorios a los hospitales designados. El hospital designado de Xiaotangshan, un hospital especializado en el sindrome respiratorio agudo severo en 2003, se rehabilito rapidamente y se puso en funcionamiento con las tareas principales de examinar y aislar a los sintomaticos que llegaban al Aeropuerto Internacional de Pekin, proporcionando atencion medica basica a los casos positivos de COVID-19 de leves a moderados, y derivando rapidamente los casos positivos de COVID-19 de graves a criticos a hospitales de nivel superior. Durante el mes que duro su funcionamiento, se examino a 2.171 pasajeros y se confirmo que 53 tenian la COVID-19 (6 de ellos con intensidad de grave a critica). Describimos como el uso del hospital designado de Xiaotangshan permitio agrupar y evaluar eficazmente a los pasajeros que llegaban de un pais extranjero, prestar una atencion optima a los pacientes sin comprometer la seguridad publica y priorizar a los pacientes en estado critico que requerian tratamiento para salvar su vida. El hospital designado es un ejemplo de exito de la recomendacion de la Organizacion Mundial de la Salud de renovar las infraestructuras medicas existentes para mejorar la capacidad de respuesta ante la COVID-19. El diseno flexible del hospital designado de Xiaotangshan significa que puede utilizarse y volver a habilitarse en cualquier momento para responder a las condiciones cambiantes de la pandemia, Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020. (1) At that date, 7818 cases [...]