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COVID-19 surveillance

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Main articles: Disease surveillance and Public health surveillance

COVID-19 surveillance involves monitoring the spread of the coronavirus disease in order to establish the patterns of disease progression. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends active surveillance, with focus of case finding, testing and contact tracing in all transmission scenarios.[1] COVID-19 surveillance is expected to monitor epidemiological trends, rapidly detect new cases, and based on this information, provide epidemiological information to conduct risk assessment and guide disease preparedness.[1]

Syndromic surveillance

Syndromic surveillance is done based on the symptoms of an individual that corresponds to COVID-19. As of March 2020, the WHO recommends the following case definitions[1]:

  • Suspect case: "A patient with acute respiratory illness (fever and at least one sign/symptom of respiratory disease, e.g., cough, shortness of breath), and a history of travel to or residence in a location reporting community transmission of COVID-19 disease during the 14 days prior to symptom onset" OR " a patient with any acute respiratory illness and having been in contact with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case in the last 14 days prior to symptom onset" OR "a patient with severe acute respiratory illness (fever and at least one sign/symptom of respiratory disease, e.g., cough, shortness of breath; and requiring hospitalization) and in the absence of an alternative diagnosis that fully explains the clinical presentation".
  • Probable case : "A suspect case for whom testing for the COVID-19 virus is inconclusive" OR "a suspect case for whom testing could not be performed for any reason".
  • Confirmed case: "A person with laboratory confirmation of COVID-19 infection, irrespective of clinical signs and symptoms".
  • Contact : "A contact is a person who experienced any one of the following exposures during the 2 days before and the 14 days after the onset of symptoms of a probable or confirmed case:
  1. Face-to-face contact with a probable or confirmed case within 1 meter and for more than 15 minutes;
  2. Direct physical contact with a probable or confirmed case;
  3. Direct care for a patient with probable or confirmed COVID-19 disease without using proper personal protective equipment;
  4. Other situations as indicated by local risk assessments".

WHO recommends reporting of probable and confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection within 48 hours of identification.[1] The countries should report on a case-by-case basis as far as possible, but in case of limitation in resources, aggregate weekly reporting is also possible.[2] Some organizations have created crowdsourced apps for syndromic surveillance, where people can report their symptoms to help researchers map areas with concentration of COVID-19 symptoms.[3]

Virological surveillance

Main article: COVID-19 testing

Virological surveillance is done by using molecular tests for COVID-19.[4] WHO has published resources for laboratories on how to perform testing for COVID-19.[4] In the European Union, laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 are reported within 24 hours of identification.[5]

Digital surveillance

At least 24 countries have established digital surveillance of their citizens.[6] The digital surveillance technologies include apps, location data and electronic tags.[6] The Center For Disease Control and Prevention in USA tracks the travel information of individuals using airline passenger data.[7][8] In Hong Kong, authorities are requiring a bracelet and an app for all travellers. A GPS app is used to track the locations of individuals in South Korea to ensure against quarantine breach, sending alerts to the user and to authorities if people leave designated areas.[9][10] In Singapore, individuals have to report their locations with photographic proof. Thailand is using an app and SIM cards for all travelers to enforce their quarantine.[6] Human rights organizations have criticized some of these measures, asking the governments not to use the pandemic as a cover to introduce invasive digital surveillance.[11] [12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Global surveillance for COVID-19 caused by human infection with COVID-19 virus" (PDF). World Health Organization. WHO. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Surveillance, rapid response teams, and case investigation". www.who.int. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Limited testing poses challenges to mapping COVID-19 spread". Modern Healthcare. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Laboratory testing for 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in suspected human cases". www.who.int. World Health Organization. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  5. ^ "Case definition and European surveillance for COVID-19, as of 2 March 2020". European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  6. ^ a b c "Tracking the Global Response to COVID-19 | Privacy International". privacyinternational.org. Privacy International. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  7. ^ Sloane, Mona; Cahn, Albert Fox (1 April 2020). "Today's COVID-19 Data Will be Tomorrow's Tools of Oppression". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  8. ^ Mintz, Sam; Gurciullo, Brianna (3 March 2020). "CDC may lack contact information for some airline passengers possibly exposed to coronavirus". POLITICO.
  9. ^ "Phones Could Track the Spread of Covid-19. Is It a Good Idea?". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-04-06 – via www.wired.com.
  10. ^ hermes (21 March 2020). "How China, South Korea and Taiwan are using tech to curb coronavirus outbreak". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  11. ^ "Governments Should Respect Rights in COVID-19 Surveillance". Human Rights Watch. 2 April 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  12. ^ "Digital surveillance to fight COVID-19 can only be justified if it respects human rights". www.amnesty.org. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
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