Integrated Approaches for COVID-19 Case Finding and Their Impact on Timeliness for Disease Containment — Changning District, Shanghai Municipality, China, January–July, 2020

Abstract

What is already known on this topic? The demand for containing the virus and protecting the economy is high on the agenda of policymakers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Modelling studies indicated that highly effective contact tracing and case isolation were enough to contain the spread of COVID-19 at the early stages, but this has not been validated in real world contexts. What is added by this report? Integrated case finding approaches, including outpatient monitoring, exposed people quarantining, and contact tracing, effectively contained the spread of COVID-19 in a densely populated district in Shanghai Municipality, China. Active case-finding involving quarantine of exposed persons and contact tracing could reduce the time from symptom onset to COVID-19 diagnosis, thus reducing the risk of local transmission. What are the implications for public health practice? Active case-finding should be prioritized as an effective approach to minimize the risk of local transmission in future pandemics. Integrated COVID-19 case finding approaches applied in Shanghai may inform public health policy in other regions where strict lockdown is not applicable.