The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has transformed the way that the world functions. Health issues and population safety have driven countries' economies to a critical state; therefore, sustaining economic activity while keeping workers safe has become a worldwide goal. In this paper, we present a novel safety protocol based on rapid antibody testing (ABT). Using discrete event simulation, we evaluated its performance on the cumulative number of infected workers, effective reproductive number (Re), and active work force within a company. Using a synthetic experiment, we showed that ABT twice a week (ABT 3) performed the best, detecting 5.7% of infected workers, compared to 16.9% when no ABT was applied. Re was reduced from 1.75 to 0.84, with a slight decrease in the active workers within the firm. A sensitivity analysis on the duration of the shedding period and sensitivity of ABT was performed and led to the same qualitative conclusions. We applied this protocol in a Chilean winery: the estimation of the initial Re of 1.3 was reduced to 0.7 when the ABT 3 protocol was implemented, with a 27% decrease in the number of infected workers. Although ABT is not approved for COVID-19 diagnosis, our study shows that upgraded safety standards can already be implemented in workspaces.
@article{arxiv.2007.05825,
title = {Safer working spaces at coronavirus time: A novel use of antibody tests},
author = {Patricio Foncea and Susana Mondschein and Ragheb Massouh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.05825},
year = {2020}
}