RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Experience of a novel community testing programme for COVID-19 in London: Lessons learnt
JF Clinical Medicine
JO Clin Med
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP e165
OP e169
DO 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0436
VO 20
IS 5
A1 Wallis, Gabriel
A1 Siracusa, Francesca
A1 Blank, Michael
A1 Painter, Helena
A1 Sanchez, Javier
A1 Salinas, Kelcy
A1 Mamuyac, Cherifer
A1 Marudamuthu, Cindy
A1 Wrigley, Fenella
A1 Corrah, Tumena
A1 Rampling, Tommy
A1 Logan, Sarah
A1 Goodman, Anna
A1 Miller, Deborah
A1 Williams, Bhanu
A1 McGregor, Alastair
A1 Parris, Victoria
A1 Sandhu, Gurjinder
A1 John, Laurence
A1 Papineni, Padmasayee
A1 Whittington, Ashley
YR 2020
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/20/5/e165.abstract
AB We describe the London community testing programme developed for COVID-19, audit its effectiveness and report patient acceptability and patient adherence to isolation guidance, based upon a survey conducted with participants.Any patients meeting the Public Health England (PHE) case definition for COVID-19 who did not require hospital admission were eligible for community testing. 2,053 patients with suspected COVID-19 were tested in the community between January and March 2020. Of those tested, 75 (3.6%) were positive. 88% of patients that completed a patient survey felt safe and 82% agreed that community testing was preferable to hospital admission. 97% were able to remain within their own home during the isolation period but just 41% were able to reliably isolate from other members of their household.The London community testing programme allowed widespread testing for COVID-19 while minimising patient transport, hospital admissions and staff exposures. Community testing was acceptable to patients and preferable to admission to hospital. Patients were able to reliably isolate in their home but not from household contacts. The authors believe in the importance, feasibility and acceptability of community testing for COVID-19 as a part of a package of interventions to mitigate a second wave of infection.