Category
Public Health, Risk AnalysisAbout This Project
Agent-based Workplace Diagnostic Testing for COVID 19
Testing frequency recommendations based on user input workplace and prevalence parameters.
PROJECT TYPE(S)
Partner(s)
Gingko Bioworks
As the US workforce goes back to work during the COVID-19 outbreak, employers are under increasing pressure to provide large-scale, regular diagnostic testing to evaluate employee safety and reduce the likelihood of starting or exacerbating flare ups of the outbreak, especially as governments move forward with re-opening plans. In practice, much of the burden of employee safety – of maintaining disease-free work environments, reducing the spread of disease, and performing on-going diagnostic testing – will fall to employers. We developed an agent-based model for COVID to inform these efforts.
Ginkgo Bioworks has developed a sequence-based diagnostic test that will support workforce-scale testing over an extended period as the outbreak continues into the fall of 2020 to 2021 or beyond. This diagnostic testing is designed to support workforce protection and safety measures, but the operational requirements for that testing, including how many tests, where, of whom, and how frequently, has not yet been defined.
To support these efforts and provide a tool to evaluate the operational realities of testing in the workplace, we developed an agent-based model, to help define the requirements of small-environment testing and contact tracing efforts to manage the COVID-19 outbreak. This model is available publicly here. These efforts were used by Ginkgo to help guide decisions around testing to support and inform workforce response efforts.
Ginkgo Bioworks has developed a sequence-based diagnostic test that will support workforce-scale testing over an extended period as the outbreak continues into the fall of 2020 to 2021 or beyond. This diagnostic testing is designed to support workforce protection and safety measures, but the operational requirements for that testing, including how many tests, where, of whom, and how frequently, has not yet been defined.
To support these efforts and provide a tool to evaluate the operational realities of testing in the workplace, we developed an agent-based model, to help define the requirements of small-environment testing and contact tracing efforts to manage the COVID-19 outbreak. This model is available publicly here. These efforts were used by Ginkgo to help guide decisions around testing to support and inform workforce response efforts.