A Health Inequalities Impact Assessment of the surveillance of COVID-19 in asymptomatic patients attending dental settings in Scotland.

INTRODUCTION: A key aspect of the public health response to COVID-19 in Scotland was enhanced community surveillance, including testing in dental settings. Across Scotland, dental settings offered patients over 5-years-old the opportunity to participate in community surveillance of COVID-19. METHODS: A Health Inequalities Impact Assessment (HIIA) was conducted to understand the differential impacts the programme would have on the population and to improve the accessibility of the programme. HIIA is a tool to allow the assessment, understanding, and mitigation of impacts on people of a proposed policy or practice. It fulfils an organisational duty to meet the requirements of the Equality Act and Fairer Scotland Duty. The HIIA was conducted rapidly in parallel with the programme development. An action research approach included an online workshop, consultation, review of population data and a literature search. RESULTS: Adjustments were required to improve the programme's accessibility. Stakeholders, including dental teams from across Scotland were involved in the consultation and brought their front-line experience in different settings. Common issues identified included digital literacy and access, language and cultural barriers to participation, and issues relating to the implications of a positive COVID-19 result. Literature indicated limited evidence on the acceptability, accessibility, and equity of asymptomatic COVID-19 surveillance. CONCLUSION: This HIIA was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. As an example of good practice in tackling inequalities in access to programmes it should represent the benchmark for other similar initiatives.

Scattering of the Halo Nucleus

Angular distributions of the elastic, inelastic, and breakup cross sections of the halo nucleus ^{11}Be on ^{197}Au were measured at energies below (E_{lab}=31.9 MeV) and around (39.6 MeV) the Coulomb barrier. These three channels were unambiguously separated for the first time for reactions of ^{11}Be on a high-Z target at low energies. The experiment was performed at TRIUMF (Vancouver, Canada). The differential cross sections were compared with three different calculations: semiclassical, inert-core continuum-coupled-channels and continuum-coupled-channels ones with including core deformation. These results show conclusively that the elastic and inelastic differential cross sections can only be accounted for if core-excited admixtures are taken into account. The cross sections for these channels strongly depend on the B(E1) distribution in ^{11}Be, and the reaction mechanism is sensitive to the entanglement of core and halo degrees of freedom in ^{11}Be.

SARS-CoV-2 Positivity in Asymptomatic-Screened Dental Patients.

Enhanced community surveillance is a key pillar of the public health response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Asymptomatic carriage of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a potentially significant source of transmission, yet remains relatively poorly understood. Disruption of dental services continues with significantly reduced capacity. Ongoing precautions include preappointment and/or at appointment COVID-19 symptom screening and use of enhanced personal protective equipment (PPE). This study aimed to investigate SARS-CoV-2 infection in dental patients to inform community surveillance and improve understanding of risks in the dental setting. Thirty-one dental care centers across Scotland invited asymptomatic-screened patients aged over 5 y to participate. Following verbal consent and completion of sociodemographic and symptom history questionnaire, trained dental teams took a combined oropharyngeal and nasal swab sample using standardized Viral Transport Medium-containing test kits. Samples were processed by the Lighthouse Lab and patients informed of their results by SMS/email with appropriate self-isolation guidance in the event of a positive test. All positive cases were successfully followed up by the national contact tracing program. Over a 13-wk period (from August 3, 2020, to October 31, 2020), 4,032 patients, largely representative of the population, were tested. Of these, 22 (0.5%; 95% CI, 0.5%-0.8%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The positivity rate increased over the period, commensurate with uptick in community prevalence identified across all national testing monitoring data streams. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a COVID-19 testing survey in asymptomatic-screened patients presenting in a dental setting. The positivity rate in this patient group reflects the underlying prevalence in community at the time. These data are a salient reminder, particularly when community infection levels are rising, of the importance of appropriate ongoing infection prevention control and PPE vigilance, which is relevant as health care team fatigue increases as the pandemic continues. Dental settings are a valuable location for public health surveillance.