One year of laboratory-based COVID-19 surveillance system in Belgium: main indicators and performance of the laboratories (March 2020-21).

ABSTRACT:

Background

With the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an existing national laboratory-based surveillance system was adapted to daily monitor the epidemiological situation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the Belgium by following the number of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, the number of performed tests and the positivity ratio. We present these main indicators of the surveillance over a one-year period as well as the impact of the performance of the laboratories, regarding speed of processing the samples and reporting results, for surveillance.

Methods

We describe the evolution of test capacity, testing strategy and the data collection methods during the first year of the epidemic in Belgium.

Results

Between the 1^s

SUBMITTER: Meurisse M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8548266 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature