Mass Testing and Verbal Screening to Control COVID-19 Pandemic: The Second Phase of National Mobilization Plan against COVID-19

As an emerging disease, COVID-19 is considered more than just a health crisis, as it socially affects communities. Therefore, community-oriented solutions via the primary healthcare system can better manage and control this pandemic. The Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and the Deputy Minister of Public Health executive branch, played an influential role in controlling the epidemic with community-based and network-based interventions in the National Mobilization Plan against COVID-19.

This cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to assess the second step of the National Mobilization Plan (NMP) against COVID-19. The data were extracted from the portal of the Network Management Center, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CLIS system, Reference Health Laboratory, and electronic record systems of the public health networks of all universities across the country from April 11 to August 10, 2020, and was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software.

During the second phase, healthcare providers screened more than 42 million people. About 98.4% of this population were diagnosed with no symptoms, and 0.4% were referred to the selected COVID-19 comprehensive health centers for examination and medical procedures. Of all the direct and referred patients of the selected COVID-19 comprehensive health centers, 55.3% had no problems, 37.8% needed to be tested, 3.6% needed to be referred to a hospital, and 3.3% received outpatient care. In the first days of laboratory screening, 11% of PCR tests were positive. By the end of the second step of the NMP against COVID-19, this rate had increased to 25%.

In times of crisis and epidemic conditions, the health network system, and the primary healthcare providers can effectively manage outpatients and reduce the burden of hospitalization. Only 3.6% of outpatients in the network system were referred to hospitals. The rest were cared for and followed up by the primary health care providers. Therefore, strengthening the network system structure and primary health care should be further considered.