“There’s No Place Like Home for The Holidays:” Travel and SARS-CoV-2 Test Positivity Following Thanksgiving Weekend

  1. Shruti H. Mehta
  2. Steven J. Clipman
  3. Amy Wesolowski
  4. Sunil S. Solomon

Reviewed by

Read the full article

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

In the US, public health officials discouraged travel and social gatherings for Thanksgiving. Data suggests that many individuals did travel over the holidays, albeit in smaller numbers than previous years. Using an online panel survey of individuals across ten US states, we found that many individuals reported spending Thanksgiving outside of their home (25.9%) or at home with at least one non-household member (27.3%). Among those who were tested, those who had Thanksgiving outside their home were significantly more likely to self-report a positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the prior two weeks compared to those who had Thanksgiving at home with non-household members or with household members only (41.7% vs. 21.4% and 13.8%, respectively; p<0.001). Persons who had Thanksgiving outside their home and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 participated in a median 35 (IQR: 21 - 53). non-essential activities compared to those who had Thanksgiving at home and tested positive (median 3 activities, IQR 0-13). Notably, planned travel over the December holidays was most common among those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the prior 2 weeks (66.5%) compared with 25.4% of those who tested negative in the prior 2 weeks and 11.0% among those who were not tested. While public health authorities should continue promoting messages to dissuade travel and social gatherings over the holidays, as supported by these data, it is equally important to promote messaging on how to get together in a “low-risk” manner for those who travel and plan gatherings. In particular, it is critical that those who do travel or visit with others outside their household do so cautiously and avoid or significantly minimize all other activities where they may potentially acquire and transmit infection in the weeks prior to and after their visit.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.12.22.20248719: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.12.22.20248719 on medRxiv