COVID-19 collaborative screening: An action-research project for large scale contact tracing in Northern Portugal

Francisca Vilas-Boas; Sofia Lopes; Margarida Teixeira; Catarina Rodrigues; Marta Teixeira; José Frias-Bulhosa; Sara Teixeira; Marta Pinto; Tiago Carvalho; Eduardo Pinheiro; Carlos Nunes; Rui Portugal; Raquel Duarte; João Firmino-Machado

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101926

COVID-19 collaborative screening: An action-research project for large scale contact tracing in Northern Portugal

Prev Med Rep. 2022 Jul 22:29:101926. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101926. eCollection 2022 Oct.

Authors

Francisca Vilas-Boas¹, Sofia Lopes¹, Margarida Teixeira¹, Catarina Rodrigues¹, Marta Teixeira¹, José Frias-Bulhosa^{1

2}, Sara Teixeira¹, Marta Pinto^{3

4}, Tiago Carvalho¹, Eduardo Pinheiro⁵, Carlos Nunes^{1

6}, Rui Portugal⁷, Raquel Duarte^{1

3

8

9}, João Firmino-Machado^{1

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Northern Regional Health Administration, Porto, Portugal.
² Oral Public Health Department - Public Health Institute, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
³ Clinical Research Unit of the Northern Regional Health Administration, Porto, Portugal.
⁴ Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁵ Secretary of State - Coordinator for the Execution of State of Emergency Proclamation in the Northern Region of Portugal, Lisboa, Portugal.
⁶ Head of the North Regional Health Administration, Porto, Portugal.
⁷ Deputy Director-General of Health, Directorate-General of Health, Lisboa, Portugal.
⁸ EPIUnit - Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁹ Public Health, Forensic Sciences and Medical Education Department, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Abstract

In late November 2020, when Europe reached the highest 14-day incidence of COVID-19 cases, the resource-intensive and time-consuming traditional contact tracing performed by Public Health was challenged. In this context, innovative approaches were necessary to guarantee a timely interruption of disease transmission. "COVID-19 Collaborative Screening" Project was developed as a faster solution, not only because the contact tracing process is simpler for the operator, but mainly because it is possible to quickly scale up the number of operators involved. It was designed to interrupt family and social transmission chains, in a partnership with the Local Public Health Services - allowing these services to dedicate to scenarios of more complex risk assessment, using the traditional contact tracing. To perform contact tracing, this method involves Public Servants, Armed Forces and Medical Dentists. The Project also promotes participatory citizenship, by delegating to the citizen the responsibility of registering his/hers contacts with high-risk exposure in an online form, in contrast to the traditional contact tracing method which is more health professional-dependent. Until the end of January 2021, the Project has trained eight teams, enrolling a total of 213 professionals, and was implemented in eight Health Regions (with an estimated population of 1,346,150 inhabitants). The Project was successful at facing the delays in case interview and contact tracing. The strategy implemented by ColabCOVID is assembled as a sustainable, reproducible and scalable platform and is ready to be re-implemented to face the emergence of more contagious variants, as well as an eventual forthcoming health threat.

Keywords: COVID-19; Contact Tracing; Dentists; Military Personnel; Pandemics; Public Health.