Study estimates the epidemiological impact of a COVID-19 testing-related incident at a surge laboratory in the UK

By Neha MathurDec 5 2022Reviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc. In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* server, researchers investigated the epidemiological impact of an incident at a laboratory in the United Kingdom .

National-level COVID-19 cases and the logistical setup, not epidemiological conditions, determined the number of tests directed toward a surge laboratory. However, variation in the number of these tests from different administrative areas in the country was unrelated to the pandemic trajectory in those areas.

RT-PCR test data was unreliable compared to LFD data during the incident period; thus, researchers used LFD positivity as a proxy of COVID-19 prevalence changes due to the incident. The estimates of COVID-19 community prevalence from the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey supported the use of LFD positivity as a proxy.

The team used a k-nearest neighbors analysis to match affected areas to unaffected areas. In other words, they compared the impact of laboratory incidents on highly affected areas versus five comparator areas selected. The KNN analysis had several matching covariates, total population, age-stratified subgroups, and Index of Multiple Deprivation average scores, to name a few, and the team normalized each to N before the analysis.

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