Abstract

As rapid-tests for SARS -CoV-2 became more widely available from late 2020, questions were raised about their sensitivity and efficacy at reducing transmission. Meanwhile, asymptomatic testing policies were rolled out for staff in the UK health and social care sectors, as well as by companies in other key sectors. In this talk I will present a model of individual viral-load trajectories to assess the impact of repeat testing policy on an individual’s infectious potential, and how this was used to compare different potential testing policies for staff working in social care. In particular I will present results showing how these policies are impacted by different assumptions regarding adherence to policy and by modelling staff shift patterns. Finally, I will present results from a network model of workplace transmission in the logistics sector (namely a package delivery depot). This detailed model demonstrates how different testing and isolation policies can impact both on transmission in the workplace and on the number of staff absences to expect, so that potentially efficient policy combinations could be identified.