The impact of support visits on self-isolation compliance of COVID-19 positive cases: the Havering autumn/winter isolation support trial

INTERVENTION: This study will test the effectiveness of home visits to individuals in Havering Local Authority who are self‐isolating as the result of testing positive for COVID‐19. It is planned as a two‐arm randomised control trial. Individuals in the treatment condition will be visited during their self‐isolation period by outreach staff who will provide information on support available during self‐isolation, as well as information on vaccination. Individuals in the control condition will not receive these visits. Havering local authority staff will visit the participants who have been allocated to receive a home visit during their 10‐day isolation period. During the visit, staff will inform residents of the purpose of the visit, will provide information on self‐isolation and support available, as well as information on vaccinations. They will ask if additional support is needed and will leave an isolation support leaflet or post it through the door if they did not manage to make contact with the resident. In addition, those residents who are not fully vaccinated against COVID‐19 will be telephoned 28 days later to provide assistance to book a vaccination. The visits are expected to last approximately 10 minutes, with data entry and PPE preparation and sanitising taking an additional 15 minutes (5 minutes before the visit and 10 minutes after). The intervention is planned to run for four weeks. Sixty percent of participants are randomly allocated to receive a visit while the other forty percent of participants will not receive a visit. Randomisation will be done through a pipeline, with positive cases being randomised at an individual level into treatment and control groups as they enter the trial. The randomisation will be blocke CONDITION: Increasing compliance with self‐isolation among positive COVID‐19 cases ; Not Applicable PRIMARY OUTCOME: Successful compliance with self‐isolation requirements is measured using indicator from the Contact Tracing Advice Service (CTAS) data that classes individuals as fully complying with self‐isolation if they have successful check‐in calls with contact tracers on days 4, 7, and 10 of their self‐isolation period; success is defined as answering the call and confirming that they are self‐isolating. This data was collected as part of the Test and Trace user journey and was available for all positive cases in England. The calls have recently ceased to all users apart from those with landlines. However, the research team is in discussion with the Trace operations team for the calls to continue for all confirmed positive cases in Havering for the period of the trial. SECONDARY OUTCOME: ; 1. Take up of TTSP application measured as proportion of self‐isolating individuals who make a TTSP application, linked with CTAS data on participants at the end of the intervention.; 2. Take up of COVID‐19 vaccination measured as proportion of non‐fully vaccinated individuals who have an additional dose of vaccination within two months of the end of isolation, linked to the vaccination database two months after the visits have ended using NHS numbers of participants.; INCLUSION CRITERIA: 1. Residents of the London borough of Havering who have tested positive for COVID‐19 2. Between the ages of 18 and 64 years (inclusive)