Genomic assessment of quarantine measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 importation and transmission



Aggarwal, Dinesh, Page, Andrew J, Schaefer, Ulf, Savva, George M, Myers, Richard, Volz, Erik, Ellaby, Nicholas, Platt, Steven, Groves, Natalie, Gallagher, Eileen
et al (show 10 more authors) (2022) Genomic assessment of quarantine measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 importation and transmission. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 13 (1). 1012-.

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Abstract

Mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from international travel is a priority. We evaluated the effectiveness of travellers being required to quarantine for 14-days on return to England in Summer 2020. We identified 4,207 travel-related SARS-CoV-2 cases and their contacts, and identified 827 associated SARS-CoV-2 genomes. Overall, quarantine was associated with a lower rate of contacts, and the impact of quarantine was greatest in the 16-20 age-group. 186 SARS-CoV-2 genomes were sufficiently unique to identify travel-related clusters. Fewer genomically-linked cases were observed for index cases who returned from countries with quarantine requirement compared to countries with no quarantine requirement. This difference was explained by fewer importation events per identified genome for these cases, as opposed to fewer onward contacts per case. Overall, our study demonstrates that a 14-day quarantine period reduces, but does not completely eliminate, the onward transmission of imported cases, mainly by dissuading travel to countries with a quarantine requirement.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Humans, Contact Tracing, Genomics, Quarantine, Genome, Viral, Travel, England, Health Impact Assessment, Travel-Related Illness, Communicable Diseases, Imported, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2
Divisions: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 15 Mar 2022 16:04
Last Modified: 23 Mar 2023 02:18
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28371-z
Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28371-z
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3150637