Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

December 4, 2020

Detecting COVID-19 Infection Hotspots in England Using Large-Scale Self-Reported Data from a Mobile Application: A Prospective, Observational Study

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  • A study modeling longitudinal, self-reported data from users of the COVID Symptom Study app in England between March and September 2020 estimated that on Sept 28 there was a daily incidence of 15,841 cases of COVID-19 nationally, a prevalence of 0.53%, and an effective reproduction number, R(t), of 1.17. Users were invited to submit swabs for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing when they had symptoms, which the authors used to calculate incidence. Prevalence was estimated using symptoms and swab test results. Study estimates identified 15 (75%) of the 20 geographic regions with highest incidence according to government test data.

Varsavsky et al. (Dec 3, 2020). Detecting COVID-19 Infection Hotspots in England Using Large-Scale Self-Reported Data from a Mobile Application: A Prospective, Observational Study. The Lancet Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30269-3