AUTHOR=Valter Remi , Sembajwe Grace , Descatha Alexis , Fadel Marc 

TITLE=Comparison of different estimators of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic activity on geographical and temporal levels

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.871010

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.871010

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Background: Studies began investigating occupational exposures as a source of contamination to SARS-Cov-2, yet few considered the variation in SARS-Cov2 pandemic activity for these exposures. Several indicators were built to assess SARS-Cov2 activity though they usually serve a specific purpose and have limitations. The aim was to compare qualitatively different estimators of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic activity and to create an estimator of pandemic activity level based on daily hospital admissions for job-exposure matrices (JEM) usage.
Methods: From publicly available French databases, we retrieved all data from March 19, 2020 (first day available) to March 25, 2021 (day of data collection) on four different estimators: intensive care bed occupied, reproductive number, tests positive rate and number positive tests (Number PT). An indicator based on new daily hospital admissions (NHA) was created for a COVID JEM. Due to the heterogeneity of the estimators, a qualitative comparison was carried out.
Results: During the study period, three major outbreaks took place. Though “Number PT” was the first indicator to worsen during the 2nd outbreak, it failed to identify variation during the outbreak. Though each indicators behaved differently during the study period, the “NHA” and the positive rate seemed to be the closest to one another.
Conclusion: This study highlights the heterogeneity of the indicators used during the first and second SARS-Cov2 outbreaks in France. The “NHA” seems to be a good candidate for estimating SARS-Cov-2 epidemic activity for COVID JEMs and is easily available in countries where usual indicators are not commonly accessible.