Public health
It has been shown that racialized and marginalized communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and improving equitable access to COVID-19 interventions would be a vital step in reducing disease transmission. Large-scale or mass testing for COVID-19 is an instrumental intervention with the goal of reducing transmission rates through the detection of positive cases, who then need to follow specific instructions on isolation measures. Another key component for COVID-19 control is contact tracing, which is a process that is used to identify, educate, and monitor individuals who have had close contact with someone who is infected.
Research objectives
Our aim is to understand if the design of the interventions for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing included accounting for inequalities and if so, how they were included. We also want to understand if there were design adaptations over time, accounting for inequalities and if so, how this was done.
Methods
A conceptual framework for analyzing the design of public health interventions will be used. This framework will allow us to study inequities were incorporated into the design of the COVID-19 mass testing and contact tracing. Qualitative data will be collected through in-depth interviews and documentation (reports, guidelines, policy recommendations, etc.) and analyzed using a deductive-inductive approach.
Expected results
The comparative analysis between the different sites will allow us to identify specific actions and lessons learned that public health decision makers and actors can use for designing COVID-19 mass testing and contact tracing adapted to different contexts, while also addressing health inequities.