Article - Feasibility of Controlling COVID-19 Outbreaks by Isolation of Cases and Contacts

Author(s)
Hellewell, J. , Abbott, S. , Gimma, A. , Bosse, N. , Jarvis, C. , Russell, T. , Munday, J. , Kucharski, A. , Edmunds, J. , Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group, Funk, S. & Eggo, R.
Publication language
English
Pages
9pp
Date published
28 Feb 2020
Publisher
The Lancet Global Health
Type
Articles
Keywords
Assessment & Analysis, Epidemics & pandemics, Health, COVID-19
Organisations
The Lancet
Link
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30074-7/fulltext

Isolation of cases and contact tracing is used to control outbreaks of infectious diseases, and has been used for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Whether this strategy will achieve control depends on characteristics of both the pathogen and the response. Here we use a mathematical model to assess if isolation and contact tracing are able to control onwards transmission from imported cases of COVID-19.