Hosted by Public Health Ontario
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions established isolation centres to help reduce household transmission; however, few real-world studies support their effectiveness. This Public Health Ontario (PHO) Rounds will present a study which compared transmission among households where first cases used the Toronto Voluntary Isolation Centre (TVIC) with households that received routine self-isolation guidance, prior to widespread vaccine availability. A total of 303 TVIC households were matched with 2943 self-isolation households. The COVID-19 attack rate (proportion of the at-risk population that contracts the disease) among TVIC households was 5.2% compared with 8.4% among self-isolation households. Use of a voluntary isolation center was associated with a reduction in household SARS-CoV-2 prior to the availability of vaccines. The potential of voluntary isolation centers to control resurgences of other communicable infections or future pandemic pathogens, beyond SARS-CoV-2, will also be explored, particularly for individuals who face challenges with isolation.