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Dear anonymous reviewer [
You raise excellent points. We are happy to note that some of these points are a result of automatically transferring our manuscript from the preprint server. We submitted our manuscript originally to a preprint server with the goal of sharing our analysis and viewpoint in a timely and nonintimidating manner by way of a short report. The title, format, and manuscript text were rapidly copied from the general preprint server edition during the automatic transfer process.
The revised manuscript addresses the following:
The title has been updated to “Evaluating Population Density as a Parameter for Optimizing COVID-19 Testing: Statistical Analysis.”
Absolute terms from the preprint report have been modified.
The elevator vs football field “visual” expression was included deliberately in the original report as a means to make the role of density in SARS-CoV-2 viral transmission readily apparent to a broad audience. In order to address your concern, we have removed a reference to this expression in the
We have included statements on limitations. Thank you for noting this gap.
We agree that a cost-effectiveness analysis is warranted after feasibility and acceptability have been established, but due in part to the word limit for short papers, we are unable to explore these differences. We believe that a paper on the costs and financial consequences of different testing strategies is warranted, potentially in follow-up analyses. Thank you for this recommendation.
In response to whether or not adjusted testing strategies based on population density (or similar measures) have been successfully done elsewhere: population density–based testing is novel, having (to our knowledge) only been employed in HIV research through network tracing in urban metropolitan areas. This gap in knowledge in terms of the benefit of population density testing is likely because we have not encountered many agents that are as infectious and persistent as SARS-CoV-2. This short paper is an initial step to illustrate to the scientific community that targeted approaches may be warranted when community spread occurs through close contact that is more likely in tightly packed communities.
Dear reviewer AAA [
Your recommended heading change has been made in the revised manuscript.
None declared.