Point prevalence for COVID-19 among temporary tea farmers with mass screening: An example from Turkey
Abstract
Objective: Since the detection of the first COVID-19 case in Rize on 20th of March 2020, there were a total of 229 reported cases until 23 May 2020. There is currently no information available about the asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in Turkey. This study aims to detect the point prevalence of -19 among tea farmers who came to Rize from other provinces during May 2020. Methods: Among the 40 thousand estimated tea workers who came to Rize in May 2020, a total of 11,180 PCR results were evaluated. The specimens were collected by healthcare workers working for the Rize Provincial Directorate of Healh and analyzed in the Reference Laboratory for Microbiology of the Ministry of Health. The point prevalence of being PCR positive for -19 was calculated. Results: The point prevalence of -19 among asymptomatic tea workers was found to be 0.197%. Being -19 positive was not statistically significant with age groups and gender (p= 0.183 and p= 0.234, respectively). Conclusions: Sudden demographic changes in society is a major challenge for establishing a sustainable control policy for COVID-19. Defining the asymptomatic proportions of the population is crucial for planning effective control strategies. Calculating point prevalence among an asymptomatic population with mass screening is a useful tool for this purpose.
Keywords
COVID-19, mass screening, point prevelance, asemptomatik vakalar
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