Drive-Through Screening Center for COVID-19: a Safe and Efficient Screening System against Massive Community Outbreak

Abstract

As the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak is ongoing, the number of individuals to be tested for COVID-19 is rapidly increasing. For safe and efficient screening for COVID-19, drive-through (DT) screening centers have been designed and implemented in Korea. Herein, we present the overall concept, advantages, and limitations of the COVID-19 DT screening centers. The steps of the DT centers include registration, examination, specimen collection, and instructions. The entire service takes about 10 minutes for one testee without leaving his or her cars. Increased testing capacity over 100 tests per day and prevention of cross-infection between testees in the waiting space are the major advantages, while protection of staff from the outdoor atmosphere is challenging. It could be implemented in other countries to cope with the global COVID-19 outbreak and transformed according to their own situations.A pandemic of an emerging infectious disease has similarity with bioterrorism in that both are disasters caused by infectious diseases and require safe and efficient use of resources. As of March 2020, the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is progressing to pandemic level despite global effort for containment, involving 101 countries with more than 100,000 confirmed cases. 1 With an increasing number of suspected and/or symptomatic individuals to be tested for COVID-19, 2 there has been a need for a safe and efficient screening system. For this purpose, drive-through (DT) screening centers have been designed and implemented in Korea, based on the previous concepts of point of dispensing for bioterrorism and DT clinic for pandemic influenza. 3,4 Herein, we introduce DT screening centers for COVID-19 and share our experience with healthcare authorities and providers all over the world.

Clinical features of the first cases and a cluster of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Bolivia imported from Italy and Spain

“…During the current phase of COVID-19 outbreak in Bolivia, only of imported cases, all of them are being tested by rRT-PCR. However, the question is if the spread occurs rapidly in the country, with communitytransmission as is now observed in other countries in the continent [72][73][74], Bolivia, as well as other low-and middle-income countries in the region, e.g. Haiti, Venezuela [75], Nicaragua, among others, will not be able to afford large-scale diagnostics [24].…”

Innovation and Knowledge Sharing Can Transform COVID‐19 Infection Prevention Response

“…Ruvandhi R Nathavitharana, MD, MPH 1,2 *, Payal K Patel, MD, MPH 3,4 , Dylan B Tierney, MD, MPH 2,5 , Preeti Mehrotra, MD 1,2 , Philip A Lederer, MD 6 , Sheila Davis, DNP, ANP-BC, FAAN 7 , Edward Nardell, MD 2,5 E merging studies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) confirm high rates of infection among healthcare workers (HCWs). 1 As widespread community transmission increases, frontline HCWs, such as hospitalists, are at particularly high risk of exposure to people with undiagnosed COVID-19.…”

Walk-Through Screening Center for COVID-19: an Accessible and Efficient Screening System in a Pandemic Situation

“…Also, as compared to a DT screening center, it is easy to apply in situations where patients visit on foot in a relatively small space. 2 By reducing the volume of one booth, the ventilation rate is increased and the time required for ventilation and surface disinfection is reduced. Several booths can be installed in a limited space.…”

“…For this purpose, a drivethrough (DT) screening center was developed and implemented in Korea and introduced in other countries as well. 2 However, there are many medical institutions that find it difficult to install or operate a DT screening center and there are many patients who find it difficult to visit it in their own cars. Herein, we introduce a walk-through (WT) screening center for COVID-19 and share our experience with healthcare authorities and providers globally.…”