TY - JOUR
T1 - Resurgence of SARS-CoV-2: Detection by community viral surveillance: Detection by community viral surveillance
AU - Riley, Steven
AU - Ainslie, Kylie E.C.
AU - Eales, Oliver
AU - Walters, Caroline E.
AU - Wang, Haowei
AU - Atchison, Christina
AU - Fronterre, Claudio
AU - Diggle, Peter
AU - Ashby, Deborah
AU - Donnelly, Christl A.
AU - Cooke, Graham
AU - Barclay, Wendy
AU - Ward, Helen
AU - Darzi, Ara
AU - Elliott, Paul
PY - 2021/5/28
Y1 - 2021/5/28
N2 - Surveillance of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has mainly relied on case reporting, which is biased by health service performance, test availability, and test-seeking behaviors. We report a community-wide national representative surveillance program in England based on self-administered swab results from ~594,000 individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2, regardless of symptoms, between May and the beginning of September 2020. The epidemic declined between May and July 2020 but then increased gradually from mid-August, accelerating into early September 2020 at the start of the second wave. When compared with cases detected through routine surveillance, we report here a longer period of decline and a younger age distribution. Representative community sampling for SARS-CoV-2 can substantially improve situational awareness and feed into the public health response even at low prevalence.
AB - Surveillance of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has mainly relied on case reporting, which is biased by health service performance, test availability, and test-seeking behaviors. We report a community-wide national representative surveillance program in England based on self-administered swab results from ~594,000 individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2, regardless of symptoms, between May and the beginning of September 2020. The epidemic declined between May and July 2020 but then increased gradually from mid-August, accelerating into early September 2020 at the start of the second wave. When compared with cases detected through routine surveillance, we report here a longer period of decline and a younger age distribution. Representative community sampling for SARS-CoV-2 can substantially improve situational awareness and feed into the public health response even at low prevalence.
U2 - 10.1126/science.abf0874
DO - 10.1126/science.abf0874
M3 - Article
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 372
SP - 990
EP - 995
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6545
ER -
