Rapid disappearance of influenza following the implementation of COVID-19 mitigation measures in Hamilton, Ontario
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Abstract
Background: Public health measures, such as physical distancing and closure of schools and non-essential services, were rapidly implemented in Canada to interrupt the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We sought to investigate the impact of mitigation measures during the spring wave of COVID-19 on the incidence of other laboratory-confirmed respiratory viruses in Hamilton, Ontario. Methods: All nasopharyngeal swab specimens (n=57,503) submitted for routine respiratory virus testing at a regional laboratory serving all acute-care hospitals in Hamilton between January 2010 and June 2020 were reviewed. Testing for influenza A and B, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza I–III, adenovirus, and rhinovirus/enterovirus was done routinely using a laboratory-developed polymerase chain reaction multiplex respiratory viral panel. A Bayesian linear regression model was used to determine the trend of positivity rates of all influenza samples for the first 26 weeks of each year from 2010 to 2019. The mean positivity rate of Bayesian inference was compared with the weekly reported positivity rate of influenza samples in 2020. Results: The positivity rate of influenza in 2020 diminished sharply following the population-wide implementation of COVID-19 interventions. Weeks 12–26 reported 0% positivity for influenza, with the exception of 0.1% reported in week 13. Conclusion: Public health measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with a reduced incidence of other respiratory viruses and should be considered to mitigate severe seasonal influenza and other respiratory virus pandemics.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.27.20240036: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Ethics approval: The study was approved by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (Project: 07-2923).
Consent: The study was categorized as minimal risk, defined as no potential for negative impact on the health and safety of the participant, and waiver of individual consent for participation was obtained.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not 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 LimitationRecogni…SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.27.20240036: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Ethics approval: The study was approved by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (Project: 07-2923).
Consent: The study was categorized as minimal risk, defined as no potential for negative impact on the health and safety of the participant, and waiver of individual consent for participation was obtained.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not 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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:The findings of our study should be interpreted in the context of study limitations. First, respiratory samples were not collected systematically, but rather they were obtained as part of routine clinical care. As such, the samples may not fully represent the prevalence of respiratory viruses in the region. It is also possible that clinicians may not have strictly followed hospital infection control policy and failed to sample patients who otherwise would have been eligible. Furthermore, sampling behaviour may have changed during the early stage of COVID-19 spread in Canada. However, these factors are unlikely to change our conclusions due to the near-elimination of the absolute number of laboratory-confirmed respiratory virus cases, despite the large increase in testing which accompanied concern for COVID-19 in the community. Our findings suggest that efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic may have had additional benefits in suppressing the transmission of other respiratory viruses in Hamilton, Ontario. Mitigation strategies, such as social distancing, mask-wearing, and school closures could play an important role in combating future seasonal respiratory viruses and emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential.
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.
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