| dc.description.abstract | COVID-19 remains a communicable disease with the capacity to cause substantial damage
to health and health systems. Enhanced health screening at points of entry (POEs) is a public health
measure implemented to support early detection, prevention and response to communicable diseases,
such as COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to review the available evidence on the effectiveness
of POE health screening in the detection and containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was
registered under PROSPERO and followed PRISMA guidelines in which the literature between 2019
and 2022 was retrieved from Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Global Health, CINAHL, Embase,
Google Scholar and international organizations. A total of 33,744 articles were screened for eligibility,
from which 43 met the inclusion criteria. The modeling studies predicted POE screening able to
detect COVID-19 in a range of 8.8% to 99.6%, while observational studies indicated a detection rate
of 2% to 77.9%, including variants of concern depending on the screening method employed. The
literature also indicated these measures can delay onset of the epidemic by 7 to 32 days. Based on our
review findings, if POE screening measures are implemented in combination with other public health
interventions such as rapid tests, they may help detect and reduce the spread of COVID-19. | en_US |
