Scientists analyze the impact of two strategies in stopping COVID-19 pandemic

How can we best organize on-site workplace and school attendance periods and remote work to slow the circulation of Sars-CoV-2? Is it better to separate classes? Bring your whole team in at the same time? Set this up on daily or weekly schedules? The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most countries to impose contact limitations in workplaces, universities and schools.

Scientists from the CNRS, Université Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, ENS de Lyon and INRIA, in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur and INSERM, have analyzed the impact of two strategies, rotating and on-off strategies, in stopping the epidemic as it reaches a community, whether in a school or in an office.

Their results show that below a certain local reproduction number threshold in the community, the two strategies, combined with other health measures, effectively control the epidemic, although the 'Rotating week-by-week' strategy is the most effective of those studied. These results, published on 26 August 2021 in PLOS Computational Biology, offer new elements to guide public health decisions related to distance working, office or school.