'Mass testing' linked to 25% cut in COVID-19 related hospital admissions bmj_latest
The first ever voluntary"mass testing" pilot for people without COVID symptoms was associated with an overall 25% reduction in COVID-19 related hospital admissions, including an initial 43% reduction with military assistance, finds a study published byAssuming this effect was causal, the researchers say the pilot prevented 6,829 infections and led to 239 fewer hospital admissions across the city of Liverpool, before being rolled out to the rest of the UK.
COVID-SMART coincided with the start of the second national UK lockdown . At the time, the unvaccinated population of Liverpool had the highest COVID-19 case rate in the country. When analysis was restricted to the first month of the pilot , the results show that it was associated with a 43% reduction in COVID-19 related hospital admissions in Liverpool compared with the control population.
Nevertheless, their approach ensured that control areas were likely to have been affected by similar coronavirus transmission patterns before the introduction of COVIDSMART in Liverpool, and the results were similar after additional analyses, suggesting that they are robust.
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