Furthermore, the paper finds that without mass testing Luxembourg's ICUs would have been 45.9% fuller than were now the case.
Researchers looked at 850 people testing positive in the Large Scale Testing programme between 27 May and 15 September. Only 567 people indicated that they had felt symptoms, indicating that roughly one third did not. Based on contact tracing, data revealed that a symptomatic person on average infects 0.7 people, whereas a asymptomatic person infects 0.6 people. The authors therefore concluded that asymptomatic cases posed a "significant transmission risk" and that the LST programme aided in reducing contacts.
11.4% of cases resulted from individuals working in the service sector, 8.6% in hospitality and 6.6% in construction.
The paper also goes on to state the economic impact of the lockdown, which has revealed that "the loss in gross domestic product per capita and per month of lockdown is approximately €3,200 per Luxembourg resident". The opportunity costs of lockdown were therefore very high, the authors concluded.
