International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Int. J. Infect. Dis. · Jul 2020
Quantifying the improvement in confirmation efficiency of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the early phase of the outbreak in Hong Kong in 2020.
The emerging virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), caused a large outbreak of coronavirus disease, COVID-19, in Wuhan, China, since December 2019. COVID-19 soon spread to other regions of China and overseas. In Hong Kong, local mitigation measures were implemented since the first imported case was confirmed on January 23, 2020. Here we evaluated the temporal variation of detection delay from symptoms onset to laboratory confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 in Hong Kong. ⋯ The detection efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 was likely being improved substantially in Hong Kong since the first imported case was detected. Sustaining enforcement in timely detection and other effective control measures are recommended to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Int. J. Infect. Dis. · Jul 2020
Monitoring disease transmissibility of 2019 novel coronavirus disease in Zhejiang, China.
Owing to the frequent travel connections between Wuhan and Zhejiang, Zhejiang was the third worst-affected province in China with 1,205 cases confirmed before 26 February 2020. The transmissibility of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease was monitored in Zhejiang, accounting for the transmissions from imported cases. Even though Zhejiang was one of the worst-affected provinces, an interruption of disease transmission (i.e. instantaneous reproduction numbers <1) was observed in early/mid-February after a comprehensive set of interventions combating the outbreak.
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Int. J. Infect. Dis. · Jul 2020
A dynamic modeling tool for estimating healthcare demand from the COVID19 epidemic and evaluating population-wide interventions.
Public health officials need tools to assist in anticipating the healthcare resources required to confront the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. We constructed a modeling tool to aid active public health officials to estimate healthcare demand from the pandemic in their jurisdictions and to evaluate the potential impact of population-wide social-distancing interventions. ⋯ Aggressive interventions can avert substantial morbidity and mortality from COVID-19. Our tool permits rapid evaluation of locally-applicable policy scenarios and updating of results as new data become available.