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BMJ Open Is Committed to Open Peer Review. As Part of This Commitment We Make the Peer Review History of Every Article We Publish Publicly Available BMJ Open: first published as 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050346 on 22 April 2021. Downloaded from BMJ Open is committed to open peer review. As part of this commitment we make the peer review history of every article we publish publicly available. When an article is published we post the peer reviewers’ comments and the authors’ responses online. We also post the versions of the paper that were used during peer review. These are the versions that the peer review comments apply to. The versions of the paper that follow are the versions that were submitted during the peer review process. They are not the versions of record or the final published versions. They should not be cited or distributed as the published version of this manuscript. BMJ Open is an open access journal and the full, final, typeset and author-corrected version of record of the manuscript is available on our site with no access controls, subscription charges or pay-per-view fees (http://bmjopen.bmj.com). If you have any questions on BMJ Open’s open peer review process please email [email protected] http://bmjopen.bmj.com/ on September 29, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. BMJ Open BMJ Open: first published as 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050346 on 22 April 2021. Downloaded from Impact of the Tier system on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the UK between the first and second national lockdowns Journal: BMJ Open ManuscriptFor ID peerbmjopen-2021-050346 review only Article Type: Original research Date Submitted by the 17-Feb-2021 Author: Complete List of Authors: Laydon, Daniel; Imperial College London, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel-Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics Mishra, Swapnil ; Imperial College London, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel-Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics Hinsley, Wes; Imperial College London, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel-Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics Samartsidis, Pantelis; University of Cambridge, MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge Institute of Public Health Flaxman, Seth; Imperial College London, Department of Mathematics and Data Science Institute http://bmjopen.bmj.com/ Gandy, Axel; Imperial College London, Department of Mathematics Ferguson, Neil; Imperial College London, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel-Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics Bhatt, Samir; Imperial College London, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel-Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics COVID-19, EPIDEMIOLOGY, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, Epidemiology < Keywords: INFECTIOUS DISEASES on September 29, 2021 by guest. 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Protected copyright. 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 For peer review only - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/site/about/guidelines.xhtml BMJ Open Page 2 of 22 1 2 3 4 1 Impact of the Tier system on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in BMJ Open: first published as 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050346 on 22 April 2021. Downloaded from 5 6 7 2 the UK between the first and second national lockdowns 8 9 3 10 11 1,* 1 1 2 12 4 Daniel J Laydon , Swapnil Mishra , Wes R Hinsley , Pantelis Samartsidis , Seth 13 14 5 Flaxman3, Axel Gandy3, Neil M Ferguson1, Samir Bhatt1 15 16 6 17 18 7 1 Department of InfectiousFor Disease peer Epidemiology, review MRC Centre for Global only Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel- 19 20 8 Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics, Imperial College London, School of Public Health, Norfolk Place, 21 9 London, W2 1PG 22 23 10 2 MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge Biomedical 24 25 11 Campus, CB2 0SR, United Kingdom 26 3 27 12 Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ 28 * 29 13 Corresponding Author: [email protected]; 30 31 14 32 33 34 15 Abstract 35 36 http://bmjopen.bmj.com/ 37 16 Objective: Measure the effects of the Tier system on the COVID-19 pandemic in the 38 39 17 UK between the first and second national lockdowns, before the emergence of the 40 41 18 B.1.1.7 variant of concern. 42 43 44 19 Design: Modelling study combining estimates of the real-time reproduction number Rt on September 29, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. 45 46 47 20 (derived from UK case, death and serological survey data) with publicly available data 48 49 21 on regional non-pharmaceutical interventions. We fit a Bayesian hierarchical model 50 51 22 with latent factors using these quantities, to account for broader national trends in 52 53 23 addition to subnational effects from Tiers. 54 55 56 24 Setting: The UK at Lower Tier Local Authority (LTLA) level. 57 58 59 60 1 For peer review only - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/site/about/guidelines.xhtml Page 3 of 22 BMJ Open 1 2 3 25 Primary and secondary outcome measures: Reduction in real-time reproduction 4 BMJ Open: first published as 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050346 on 22 April 2021. Downloaded from 5 6 26 number Rt. 7 8 9 27 Results: Nationally, transmission increased between July and late September, 10 11 28 regional differences notwithstanding. Immediately prior to the introduction of the tier 12 13 29 system, Rt averaged 1.3 (0.9 – 1.6) across LTLAs, but declined to an average of 1.1 14 15 30 (0.86 – 1.42) two weeks later. Decline in transmission was not solely attributable to 16 17 18 31 Tiers. Tier 1 had negligibleFor peer effects. Tiers review 2 and 3 respectively only reduced transmission by 19 20 32 6% (5%-7%) and 23% (21%-25%). 93% of LTLAs would have begun to suppress their 21 22 33 epidemics if every LTLA had gone into Tier 3 by the second national lockdown, 23 24 25 34 whereas only 29% did so in reality. 26 27 28 35 Conclusions: The relatively small effect sizes found in this analysis demonstrate that 29 30 36 interventions at least as stringent as Tier 3 are required to suppress transmission, 31 32 37 especially considering more transmissible variants, at least until effective vaccination 33 34 35 38 is widespread or much greater population immunity has amassed. 36 http://bmjopen.bmj.com/ 37 39 38 39 40 41 40 Strengths and limitations of this study 42 43 44 41 First study to measure effects of UK Tier system for SARS-CoV-2 control at on September 29, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. 45 46 42 national and regional level. 47 48 49 43 Model makes minimal assumptions and is primarily data driven. 50 51 44 Insufficient statistical power to estimate effects of individual interventions that 52 53 45 comprise Tiers, or their interaction. 54 55 56 46 Estimates show that Tiers 1 and 2 are insufficient to suppress transmission, at 57 58 47 least until widespread population immunity has amassed. Emergence of more 59 60 48 transmissible variants of concern unfortunately supports this conclusion. 2 For peer review only - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/site/about/guidelines.xhtml BMJ Open Page 4 of 22 1 2 3 4 49 Introduction BMJ Open: first published as 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050346 on 22 April 2021.
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