O-37 Impact of a Vaccine Mandate on infection rates at a Tertiary Education Institution in Grenada
Author(s):
N Cudjoe, PJ Fields, V Matthew-Belmar, B Sharma, E Chitan, TP Noel, K Yearwood, CNL Macpherson
Type Of Study:
- Analytical Study
- Quantitative
Year of Presentation:
2023
Objective: A vaccine mandate to enter a tertiary educational institution (TEI) campus was enacted in June 2021 which aimed at reducing severe disease from SARS-CoV-2, and to reduce transmission.
Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study examined the positivity rate amongst the TEI community before and after the vaccine mandate.
Results: The average proportion of TEI positive results was 10.3% (95% CI: 9.8% to 10.8%). This varied by group from a low of 5.7% (95% CI: 4.8% to 6.6%) for staff to 17.0% (95% CI: 15.5 to 18.5) for other members comprising of vendors and fishermen. The staff and others were statistically significantly different from all other groups (p < 0.001, with Bonferroni adjustment for multiplicity). TEI students had an average positive test proportion of 10.5% (95% CI: 9.7% to 11.4%) with a positive proportion of 8.1% (95% CI: 6.8% to 9.4%) for students living on campus and a higher proportion for students living off campus (11.7%, 95% CI: 10.7% to 12.7%). Comparing the students living on campus with the rest of the TEI community – all of whom lived off campus – the odds were 8:1 in favor of a positive test result for off-campus individuals but 11:1 for on-campus individuals giving an odds ratio of 1.4 (95% CI: 1.1 to 1.6), which is a trivial effect.
Conclusion: Transmission was reduced amongst students living on campus compared with those living off campus. The four distinct transmission waves of SARS-CoV-2 recorded on campus matched the records of transmission in the Grenada population. There were no severe illnesses recorded amongst the TEI community. Vaccination did not appear to impact transmission.