Abstract
As has been consistently demonstrated, rapid tests administered at regular intervals can offer significant benefits to both individuals and their communities at large by helping identify whether an individual is infected and potentially infectious. An additional advantage to the tested individuals is that positive tests may be provided sufficiently early enough during their infections that treatment with antiviral treatments can effectively inhibit development of severe disease, particularly when PCR uptake is limited and/or delays to receipt of results are substantial. Here, we provide a quantitative illustration of the extent to which rapid tests administered at various intervals can deliver benefits accrued from the novel Pfizer treatment (nirmatrelvir) among high-risk populations. We find that strategies in which tests are administered more frequently, i.e. every other day or every three days, are associated with greater reductions in the risk of hospitalization with weighted risk ratios ranging from 0.17 (95% CI: 0.11-0.28) to 0.77 (95% CI: 0.69-0.83) and correspondingly, higher proportions of the infected population benefiting from treatment, ranging from 0.26 (95% CI: 0.18-0.34) to 0.92 (95% CI: 0.80-0.98). We further observed that reduced positive-test-to-treatment delays and increased testing and treatment coverage have a critical influence on average treatment benefits, confirming the significance of access.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
This study did not receive any funding
Author Declarations
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Data Availability
All code is available at https://github.com/goshgondar2018/LFT_treatment_analysis