{"655346":{"#nid":"655346","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Surveillance testing shown to reduce community COVID-19 spread","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn early 2020, Georgia Tech researchers designed a saliva-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and encouraged community members to test weekly to track the health of the campus during the Covid-19 pandemic.\u0026nbsp;Their strategy\u0026nbsp;confirmed 62% of the campus\u0026#39;s positive cases in the fall 2020 semester. The method of surveillance testing \u0026mdash; focusing on case clusters and then having patients isolate \u0026mdash; reduced positivity rates from 4.1% in the beginning of the semester to below 0.5% mid-semester. Their findings were published in the journal\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/journals.lww.com\/epidem\/Fulltext\/2022\/03000\/Surveillance_to_Diagnostic_Testing_Program_for.8.aspx\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EEpidemiology\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/joshua-weitz\u0022\u003EJoshua Weitz\u003C\/a\u003E, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of\u0026nbsp;Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E, developed the infectious disease models used to monitor the campus and is a co-author of the study, along with \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/gregory-gibson\u0022\u003EGreg Gibson\u003C\/a\u003E, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/conan-zhao\u0022\u003EConan Zhao\u003C\/a\u003E, research technician with the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/qbios.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EInterdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences\u003C\/a\u003E. (This coverage also appeared in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.news-medical.net\/news\/20220210\/Regular-surveillance-testing-of-a-community-can-prevent-Covid-19-outbreaks.aspx\u0022\u003EThe Medical News.\u003C\/a\u003E)\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2022-02-09 20:14:41","changed_gmt":"2022-02-11 16:45:29","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2022-02-surveillance-shown-covid-.html","dateline":{"date":"2022-02-08T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2022-02-08T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"8761","name":"undefined"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}