A novel comprehensive metric to assess effectiveness of COVID-19 testing: Inter-country comparison and association with geography, government, and policy response.

ABSTRACT: Testing and case identification are key strategies in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact tracing and isolation are only possible if cases have been identified. The effectiveness of testing should be assessed, but a single comprehensive metric is not available to assess testing effectiveness, and no timely estimates of case detection rate are available globally, making inter-country comparisons difficult. The purpose of this paper was to propose a single, comprehensive metric, called the COVID-19 Testing Index (CovTI) scaled from 0 to 100, derived from epidemiological indicators of testing, and to identify factors associated with this outcome. The index was based on case-fatality rate, test positivity rate, active cases, and an estimate of the detection rate. It used parsimonious mo

SUBMITTER: Kuster AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7935311 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature