SARS-CoV-2 transmission and impacts of unvaccinated-only screening in populations of mixed vaccination status.

ABSTRACT: Screening programs that test only the unvaccinated population have been proposed and implemented to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 spread, implicitly assuming that the unvaccinated population drives transmission. To evaluate this premise and quantify the impact of unvaccinated-only screening programs, we introduce a model for SARS-CoV-2 transmission through which we explore a range of transmission rates, vaccine effectiveness scenarios, rates of prior infection, and screening programs. We find that, as vaccination rates increase, the proportion of transmission driven by the unvaccinated population decreases, such that most community spread is driven by vaccine-breakthrough infections once vaccine coverage exceeds 55% (omicron) or 80% (delta), points which shift lower as vaccine effectiveness wanes. T

SUBMITTER: Bubar KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9120147 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature