Application of Testing-Tracing-Treatment Strategy in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak in Seoul, Korea

Following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China, a total of 637 patients had been diagnosed with the disease in Seoul as of May 2, 2020. Our study aimed to describe the impact of the 3T strategies (preemptive testing, prompt tracing and proper treatment) on the epidemiolog...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Korean medical science 2020, 35(45), , pp.1-9
Main Authors: Park, Yoojin, Huh, In Sil, Lee, Jaekyung, Kang, Cho Ryok, Cho, Sung Il, Ham, Hyon Jeen, Kim, Hea Sook, Kim, Jung Il, Na, Baeg Ju, Lee, Jin Yong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Child
Child, Preschool
Contact Tracing
COVID-19 - diagnosis
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 - therapy
COVID-19 - virology
Disease Outbreaks
Female
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Male
Middle Aged
Original
Republic of Korea - epidemiology
SARS-CoV-2 - genetics
SARS-CoV-2 - isolation & purification
Strategic Planning
Time-to-Treatment
Young Adult
의학일반
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Summary:Following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China, a total of 637 patients had been diagnosed with the disease in Seoul as of May 2, 2020. Our study aimed to describe the impact of the 3T strategies (preemptive testing, prompt tracing and proper treatment) on the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in Seoul. The descriptive and explanatory analysis was carried out on critical indicators such as epidemiological characteristics and key duration of patient status change from January 24 to May 2 in Seoul before and after preemptive testing for patients under investigation associated with COVID-19 clusters. Preemptive testing increased the positive test rate (3.9% to 4.2%), an asymptomatic case at diagnosis (16.9% to 30.6%), and reduced the time from symptom onset to quarantine (4.0 to 3.0 days). Prompt tracing decreased unknown sources of infection (6.9% to 2.8%), the mean number of contacts (32.2 to 23.6), and the time-varying reproduction number R(t) (1.3 to 0.6). With proper treatment, only 2 cases of mortality occurred, resulting in a fatality rate of just 0.3%. In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic lasting 100 days, the effect of the 3T strategies flattened the curve and decreased the time during which infected individuals were contagious, thereby lowering the R(t) below 1 in Seoul.
ISSN:1011-8934
1598-6357
DOI:10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e396