en Clinical Medicine Clinical Medicine مقاله پژوهشی Original Research Article <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><strong new="" roman="" style="font-family: " times=""><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="background-color:#16a085;">Background and Objective:</span></span>&nbsp;</strong>Screening and timely diagnosis of positive individuals is one of the important issues in controlling pandemic of Covid-19. Early and timely diagnosis of asymptomatic individuals, contact tracking, disconnection of Covid-19 transmission chain through early detection of patients and decreasing R0 were the main objectives of the current study.<br> <strong new="" roman="" style="font-family: " times=""><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="background-color:#16a085;">Materials and Methods:</span></span>&nbsp;</strong>The Covid-19 outpatient sampling detection project started in Zanjan province on March 26, 2020 and samples were taken from people suspected of having Corona Virus and people in contact with these patients.<br> <strong new="" roman="" style="font-family: " times=""><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="background-color:#16a085;">Results:</span></span></strong>&nbsp;All 31,937 cases (48% male, 52% female) who had referred to Comprehensive Health Care Centers until May 16, 2020, were selected. A considerable percentage of incidences were observed in Zanjan and Khodabandeh cities. 20% of the examined samples had positive results. A substantial incidence was found in the age group of over 70 -year- old. Following implementation of the outpatient screening project, R0 fell below 1 in the province.<br> <strong new="" roman="" style="font-family: " times=""><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="background-color:#16a085;">Conclusion:</span></span>&nbsp;</strong>Prior to the implementation of Covid-19 laboratorial outpatient screening project, the value of R0 was 1.4 in Zanjan province. However, this value fell below 1, after implementation of the laboratorial outpatient screening indicating that the principal way to effectively control Covid -19 is to detect positive cases and manage them.</span></span></p> Mass screening, Outpatients, Covid-19 177 184 http://journal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-4802-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Parviz Ghezelbash pghezelbash@zums.ac.ir 5200319475328460073430 5200319475328460073430 Yes Dept.of Radiology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Alireza Raeisi dr.alirezaraeisi@gmail.com 5200319475328460073431 5200319475328460073431 No Dept.of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran Mohammad Reza Saeini drsaeini@gmail.com 5200319475328460073432 5200319475328460073432 No Vice- Chancellor for Health, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Alireza Biglari biglari@pasteur.ac.ir 5200319475328460073433 5200319475328460073433 No Dept.of Genetics, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Jafar Sadegh Tabrizi js.tabrizi@gmail.com 5200319475328460073434 5200319475328460073434 No Vice- Chancellor for Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Kobra Pirmohammadlou k.pr1351@yahoo.com 5200319475328460073435 5200319475328460073435 No Vice- Chancellor for Health, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Parishad Ghavam parishadghavam@gmail.com 5200319475328460073436 5200319475328460073436 No Vice- Chancellor for Health, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Hossein Masoumi masomi550@yahoo.com 5200319475328460073437 5200319475328460073437 No Vice- Chancellor for Health, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Yahya Shadi shadi.yahya@yahoo.com 5200319475328460073438 5200319475328460073438 No Vice- Chancellor for Health, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran