Outpatient Screening Project for Suspected Covid-19 Patients in Zanjan Province, Iran

Background and Objective: Screening and timely diagnosis of positive individuals is one of the important issues in controlling pandemic of Covid-19. Early and timely diagnosis of asymptomatic individuals, contact tracking, disconnection of Covid-19 transmission chain through early detection of patients and decreasing R0 were the main objectives of the current study. Materials and Methods: The Covid-19 outpatient sampling detection project started in Zanjan province on March 26, 2020 and samples were taken from people suspected of having Corona Virus and people in contact with these patients. Results: All 31,937 cases (48% male, 52% female) who had referred to Comprehensive Health Care Centers until May 16, 2020, were selected. A considerable percentage of incidences were observed in Zanjan and Khodabandeh cities. 20% of the examined samples had positive results. A substantial incidence was found in the age group of over 70 -year- old. Following implementation of the outpatient screening project, R0 fell below 1 in the province. Conclusion: Prior to the implementation of Covid-19 laboratorial outpatient screening project, the value of R0 was 1.4 in Zanjan province. However, this value fell below 1, after implementation of the laboratorial outpatient screening indicating that the principal way to effectively control Covid -19 is to detect positive cases and manage them.