Detection of imported COVID-19 cases worldwide: early assessment of airport entry screening, 24 January until 17 February 2020

• Published in: Tropical Medicine and Health
• Main Authors: Varvara A. Mouchtouri, Zacharoula Bogogiannidou, Martin Dirksen-Fischer, Sotirios Tsiodras, Christos Hadjichristodoulou
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2020
• Subjects: COVID-19; Entry screening; Airports; Airplane; Traveler; SARS-CoV-2; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-020-00260-5; https://doaj.org/article/c940a8fd2afa4732bdfbab7895255742

Abstract The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of entry screening measures applied at airports in response to the COVID-19 epidemic worldwide. Between 24 January and 17 February 2020, 5.2% (95% CI 3.1–8.5) of the 271 total imported COVID-19 cases worldwide (excluding imported cases arriving in China, Macao, and Hong Kong) with known detection location were captured through airport entry screening. The majority of imported COVID-19 cases (210) were identified by the health care system (77.5%). Efforts should focus on health care system preparedness for early case detection, since according to our and previous studies health care facilities are the actual point of entry of imported cases.