Test Trace and Isolate for epidemic control: lessons learnt from COVID-19 in the UK and preparing for future pandemics

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Test Trace and Isolate for epidemic control: lessons learnt from COVID-19 in the UK and preparing for future pandemics

 09 Dec 2021

Online
  • Elizabeth Fearon, LSHTM

About:

Test Trace and Isolate (TTI) has been a corner stone of the response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the UK and elsewhere in the world over the past 18 months. With the successful rollout of the vaccination programme in the UK and the longer term role of TTI in control measures for COVID-19 still be to be clearly understood, now is a critical time to consider the lessons learnt over the future and to look forward to the role TTI will continue to play in SARs-CoV-2 control measures and also future pandemics.

This event set out to explore three key questions:

  • What have we learned about TTI for epidemic control of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK over the last 18 months in the early and mid epidemic phases?
  • What are the key questions for TTI in managing the SARS CoV2 epidemic in the UK over the next 6 months?
  • How should TTI be planned for in future pandemic planning? What might we expect about its effectiveness given different pathogen characteristics, TTI design choices and testing options, societal and political circumstances, and how could this be improved upon?

Given the immediate concerns caused by the Omicron variant, the breakout sessions had a stronger focus on immediate term concerns. 

A write up of the meeting is now available

This event was supported by the Virtual Forum for Knowledge Exchange in the Mathematical Sciences (V-KEMS)
 
"An analytical framework for test, trace and isolate in the United Kingdom for SARS-CoV-2 control" was funded by UKRI Medical Research Council and NIHR as a COVID-19 Rapid Response project 2020-2021 (MR/V028618/1).
 
This event was organised in collaboration with the Joint UNIversities Pandemic and Epidemiology Research (JUNIPER) consortium, which is a consortium of epidemiology modelling and statistics groups from across eight universities in the UK.
Meeting Report

Programme:

Liz Fearon, LSHTM Welcome and Introductory Talk
Emma Davis, Oxford What did we learn about effective TTI in the early-mid epidemic phase?
Fergus Cummings, UKHSA What are important considerations/applications of TTI in the medium term (next 6 months) in the UK?
Guy Marshall/Rigina Skeva, Manchester Why should we, and how can we, involve the public in pandemic response research such as the TTI project?
Francesca Scarabel, Manchester How might we think about what characteristics affect the likely success of TTI in controlling an epidemic?
Whole group discussion
Event Close