Oct 19, 2021

WASHINGTON (XINHUA) - A new study published on Monday (Oct 18) shows testing and isolating positive cases remain important mitigation strategies for universities even with 100 per cent of students vaccination rates. The research, conducted by Florida Atlantic University in collaboration with Duke University and the University of North Carolina, studied 5,000 simulated undergraduates to evaluate the levels of vaccine efficacy and mitigation strategies. The results, published in JAMA Health Forum, showed that if 100 per cent people were vaccinated with 90 per cent vaccine effectiveness, surveillance testing and quarantine were not associated with a substantial reduction in infections. However, if vaccine effectiveness was reduced to 75 per cent, weekly surveillance testing was associated with a substantial reduction in the number of infections. At 50 per cent vaccine effectiveness, surveillance testing and quarantine were associated with a marked reduction in the estimated number of infections, according to the results. At 50 to 75 per cent effectiveness, surveillance testing was estimated to reduce the number of infections by as much as 93.6 per cent. "Findings from our study suggest that surveillance testing and isolation of positive cases may remain important mitigation strategies for universities even if 100 per cent of the students are vaccinated," said Francis Motta, lead author and an assistant professor of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Florida Atlantic University. "Relaxing mitigations will necessarily increase the number of interactions within student populations; thus, without surveillance testing, limiting infections on campus will mostly rely on the capability of vaccines to prevent infection and transmission," said Motta. More on this topic