Published today in @TheLancet after peer review – our randomised controlled trial of a policy of daily lateral flow device testing vs quarantine for Covid-19 contacts in secondary schools and colleges. (1/8)
authors.elsevier.com/a/1dlF4V-4XDSd…
authors.elsevier.com/a/1dlF4V-4XDSd…
18 months in, this is the first clinical trial anywhere examining interventions to manage Covid-19 in an educational setting. Young people have borne an enormous impact of pandemic controls. We need high quality evidence to safely reduce this impact. (2/8)
We found a daily contact testing did not significantly increase transmission (ie non inferior to unsupervised quarantine) via case rates throughout participating schools and colleges (intention-to-treat adjusted incidence rate ratio 0·96 [95% CI 0·75–1·22]; p=0·72)(3/8)
Not everyone took up an offer of daily testing, but taking into account results with high participation (CACE analysis), daily testing did not result in significantly more transmission (aIRR 0·86 [0·55–1·34]) (4/8)
Attendance in school was higher when daily contact testing was offered, but attendance was very variable, so we have uncertainty about that result and it was not statistically significant (aIRR 0·80 [95% CI 0·54–1·19]) (5/8)
Most notably, when we test asymptomatic contacts by PCR, 2 and 7 days after contact, only 1 of 67 contacts tests positive (1.5% and 1.6% in each group). School contacts rarely resulted in transmission. (6/8)
This study was conducted during a period where Delta was the dominant variant, but low-moderate incidence (19/4/21-27/6/21). Other mitigations (bubbles, distancing) were policy throughout, though masks were not mandatory after 17/5/21. (7/8)
We are so grateful to the schools and colleges who took part in this study. I hope many more follow to offer high quality, real world evidence to shape Covid-19 control policy. (8/8)
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