Efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 Repeat Testing to Control Spread in Residential College Populations

Universities have turned to SARS-CoV-2 models to examine campus reopening strategies. While these studies have explored a variety of modeling techniques, all have relied on simulated data. Here, we use an empirical proximity network of college freshmen, ascertained using smartphone Bluetooth, to simulate the spread of the virus. We investigate the role of testing, isolation, mask wearing, and social distancing in the presence of implementation challenges and imperfect compliance. Here we show that while frequent testing can drastically reduce spread if mask wearing and social distancing are not widely adopted, testing has limited impact if they are ubiquitous. Furthermore, even moderate levels of immunity can significantly reduce new infections, especially when combined with other interventions. Our findings suggest that while testing and isolation are powerful tools, they have limited benefit if other interventions are widely adopted. If universities can attain high levels of masking and social distancing, they may be able to relax testing frequency to once every two to four weeks.