Universal Community Nucleic Acid Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Hong Kong Reveals Insights Into Transmission Dynamics: A Cross Sectional and Modeling Study

Abstract

The existing surveillance approaches and contact tracing identified around three quarters of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases during the third community epidemic in Hong Kong, while the population-wide testing program detected additional unrecognized infections.

Background Testing of an entire community has been used as an approach to control coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In Hong Kong, a universal community testing program (UCTP) was implemented at the fadeout phase of a community epidemic in July to September 2020. We described the utility of the UCTP in finding unrecognized infections and analyzed data from the UCTP and other sources to characterize transmission dynamics. Methods We described the characteristics of people participating in the UCTP and compared the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 cases detected by the UCTP versus those detected by clinical diagnosis and public health surveillance (CDPHS). We developed a Bayesian model to estimate the age-specific incidence of infection and the proportion of cases detected by CDPHS. Results In total, 1.77 million people, 24% of the Hong Kong population, participated in the UCTP from 1 to 14 September 2020. The UCTP identified 32 new infections (1.8 per 100000 samples tested), consisting of 29% of all local cases reported during the two-week UCTP period. Compared with the CDPHS, the UCTP detected a higher proportion of sporadic cases (62% vs 27%, P<.01) and identified 6 (out of 18) additional clusters during that period. We estimated that 27% (95% credible interval: 22%, 34%) of all infections were detected by the CDPHS in the third wave. Conclusions We reported empirical evidence of the utility of population-wide COVID-19 testing in detecting unrecognized infections and clusters. Around three quarters of infections have not been identified through existing surveillance approaches including contact tracing.