655346 external_news 1644437681 1644597929 In 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. Their strategy confirmed 62% of the campus's positive cases in the fall 2020 semester. The method of surveillance testing — focusing on case clusters and then having patients isolate — 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 Epidemiology. Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, developed the infectious disease models used to monitor the campus and is a co-author of the study, along with Greg Gibson, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, and Conan Zhao, research technician with the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences. (This coverage also appeared in The Medical News.)

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