SARS-CoV-2 surveillance and outbreak response on an urban American college campus

Abstract

Objective

The George Washington University (GW) in Washington, D.C., USA established the Public Health Laboratory and Campus COVID-19 Support Team (CCST) to develop and implement its SARS-CoV-2 surveillance testing and outbreak response for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Participants and Methods

Approximately 4,000 GW members had access to campus for living accommodations, limited in-person instruction, athletics, research, and university operations. The outbreak response included daily risk assessment surveys, weekly surveillance testing, symptomatic and voluntary testing, case investigation, and contact tracing.

Results

Between August 17 – November 24, 2020, 42,350 SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests were performed, and 194 (0.46%) of tests were positive. Surveillance testing identified 59 (30.4%); voluntary testing 97 (50%); and symptomatic testing 30 (15.5%) of the cases, respectively.

Conclusions

Robust testing of asymptomatic people and rapid isolation and quarantine of members who are exposed or infected effectively limited the spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the Fall 2020 semester.

Keywords:

• SARS-CoV-2
• surveillance
• case investigation

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met all ethical guidelines and was deemed non-human subjects research by the Insitutional Review Board of the George Washington University given the nature of the surveillance testing program to protect the health and safety of the GWU community.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.