Research on Community Based ATK Test Study to Control Spread of COVID-19 in Migrant Community

This study plan to recruit people who are living in the Maramat and Pohphra Myanmar migrant community or returning to community from outside. This study includes seroprevalence survey (secondary objective) at the beginning and at the post-intervention of study to estimate the percentage of people in a population who have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 by capillary blood collection from finger prick. This secondary objective will be achieved through a substudy. In the substudy, 427 participants will be studied from 7 clusters that will be randomly sampled from the parent study for the Ag RDT arm and similarly 427 participants will be studied from 7 clusters that will be randomly sampled from the parent study for the No Ag RDT arm. There will be two cross-sectional surveys in each of these two arms one at baseline and the other at post-intervention. The aim will be to compare the post-intervention percentage of people in a population who have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 by capillary blood collection from finger prick between the two arms. The two arms of the substudy will be managed as follows: One arm (Arm 1): Symptomatic /suspected COVID-19 participant or close contact/family members of COVID-19 patient will be tested with Ag RDT and also involve in awareness-raising campaign with mask distribution. One arm (Arm 2): No community based Ag RDT testing but there has routine ATK or RT-PCR test by Thai health authorities if local health volunteer finds symptomatic or suspected COVID-19 or close contact with positive cases in their villages. The participant also involves in awareness-raising campaign with mask distribution. Ten focus group discussion (FGD) with community members will be conducted to find out the attitudes and perception of community members on the use of community based SAR COV2 Ag-RDTs testing in Myanmar migrant community for prevention control of COVID-19 in the study area. The overarching goal of this study is to provide evidence on effectiveness and feasibility of community-based SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) application in the Myanmar migrant community, Tak Province along the Thai Myanmar border for test-trace-isolation strategies to fight COVID-19. After the study has been completed, depending upon the study finding, study team believe that study team can propose to policymakers to recognize the effectiveness and feasibility of community-based SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDT's test-trace-isolate strategies to fight COVID-19 where there is limited or no access to COVID-19 testing in the Myanmar migrant communities This study was funded by The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). The grant reference number is U-22008