Surveillance of International Travel of COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases) in England

Mary A Sinnathamby; Katherine Twohig; Nurin Abdul Aziz; Florence Halford; Asad Zaidi; Katie Harman; Simon Thelwall; Alex Allen; Gavin Dabrera

doi:10.1111/irv.70141

Surveillance of International Travel of COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases) in England

Mary A Sinnathamby^*
, Katherine Twohig
, Nurin Abdul Aziz
, Florence Halford
, Asad Zaidi
, Katie Harman
, Simon Thelwall
, Alex Allen
, Gavin Dabrera

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Introduction: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants necessitated identification of travel-associated COVID-19 cases in England. Methods: We implemented a novel integrated COVID-19-episode-level travel surveillance system, Surveillance of International COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases), to assign imported, sporadic or unknown travel status to COVID-19 cases, using data linkage between two enhanced and two routine data sources. Results: SuITCases identified 517,988 travel-associated SARS-CoV-2 episodes (3.0% of total), where the two enhanced systems assigned most travel statuses. Conclusions: Our unique system facilitated rapid identification of travel-associated COVID-19 cases, reducing transmission and informing public health actions. Enhanced surveillance data sources should be considered as potential tools for future outbreak investigations and pandemic preparedness.

Original language	English
Article number	e70141
Journal	Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses
Volume	19
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/irv.70141
Publication status	Published - Aug 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Crown copyright. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland.

Keywords

COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2
pandemic
surveillance
travel

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1111/irv.70141

Cite this

@article{5114cacbec234a99a15fb3e3aff95d03,

title = "Surveillance of International Travel of COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases) in England",

abstract = "Introduction: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants necessitated identification of travel-associated COVID-19 cases in England. Methods: We implemented a novel integrated COVID-19-episode-level travel surveillance system, Surveillance of International COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases), to assign imported, sporadic or unknown travel status to COVID-19 cases, using data linkage between two enhanced and two routine data sources. Results: SuITCases identified 517,988 travel-associated SARS-CoV-2 episodes (3.0\% of total), where the two enhanced systems assigned most travel statuses. Conclusions: Our unique system facilitated rapid identification of travel-associated COVID-19 cases, reducing transmission and informing public health actions. Enhanced surveillance data sources should be considered as potential tools for future outbreak investigations and pandemic preparedness.",

keywords = "COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, pandemic, surveillance, travel",

author = "Mary A Sinnathamby and Katherine Twohig and Nurin Abdul Aziz and Florence Halford and Asad Zaidi and Katie Harman and Simon Thelwall and Alex Allen and Gavin Dabrera",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 Crown copyright. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses published by John Wiley \& Sons Ltd. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland.",

year = "2025",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1111/irv.70141",

language = "English",

volume = "19",

journal = "Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses",

issn = "1750-2640",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd",

number = "8",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Surveillance of International Travel of COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases) in England

AU - Sinnathamby, Mary A

AU - Twohig, Katherine

AU - Abdul Aziz, Nurin

AU - Halford, Florence

AU - Zaidi, Asad

AU - Harman, Katie

AU - Thelwall, Simon

AU - Allen, Alex

AU - Dabrera, Gavin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 Crown copyright. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland.

PY - 2025/8

Y1 - 2025/8

N2 - Introduction: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants necessitated identification of travel-associated COVID-19 cases in England. Methods: We implemented a novel integrated COVID-19-episode-level travel surveillance system, Surveillance of International COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases), to assign imported, sporadic or unknown travel status to COVID-19 cases, using data linkage between two enhanced and two routine data sources. Results: SuITCases identified 517,988 travel-associated SARS-CoV-2 episodes (3.0% of total), where the two enhanced systems assigned most travel statuses. Conclusions: Our unique system facilitated rapid identification of travel-associated COVID-19 cases, reducing transmission and informing public health actions. Enhanced surveillance data sources should be considered as potential tools for future outbreak investigations and pandemic preparedness.

AB - Introduction: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants necessitated identification of travel-associated COVID-19 cases in England. Methods: We implemented a novel integrated COVID-19-episode-level travel surveillance system, Surveillance of International COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases), to assign imported, sporadic or unknown travel status to COVID-19 cases, using data linkage between two enhanced and two routine data sources. Results: SuITCases identified 517,988 travel-associated SARS-CoV-2 episodes (3.0% of total), where the two enhanced systems assigned most travel statuses. Conclusions: Our unique system facilitated rapid identification of travel-associated COVID-19 cases, reducing transmission and informing public health actions. Enhanced surveillance data sources should be considered as potential tools for future outbreak investigations and pandemic preparedness.

KW - COVID-19

KW - SARS-CoV-2

KW - pandemic

KW - surveillance

KW - travel

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105012019610

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/75705110-24ce-3a54-b6e4-9ec7c4dd5fca/

U2 - 10.1111/irv.70141

DO - 10.1111/irv.70141

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105012019610

SN - 1750-2640

VL - 19

JO - Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses

JF - Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses

IS - 8

M1 - e70141

ER -

Surveillance of International Travel of COVID-19 Cases (SuITCases) in England

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this