TESTING, TRACING AND SOCIAL DISTANCING: ASSESSING OPTIONS FOR THE CONTROL OF COVID_19

Abstract In this work we present an analysis of non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented around the world in the fight against COVID-19: Social distancing, shelter-in-place, mask wearing, etc measures to protect the susceptible, together with, in various degrees, testing & contact-tracing to identify, isolate and treat the infected. The majority of countries have relied on the former, while ramping up their testing and tracing capabilities. We consider the examples of South Korea, Italy, Canada and the United States. By fitting a disease transmission model to daily case report data, we show that in each of the four countries their combination of social-distancing and testing/tracing to date have had a significant impact on the evolution of their pandemic curves. In this work we estimate the average isolation rates of infected individuals needing to occur in each country as a result of large-scale testing and contact tracing as a mean of lifting social distancing measures, without a resurgence of COVID-19. We find that an average isolation rate of an infected individual every 4.5 days (South Korea), 5.7 days (Canada) and to 6 days (Italy) would be sufficient. We also find that a rate of under 3.5 days will help in the United States, although it would not completely mitigate the second wave the country is currently under.