Severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) screening among symptom-free healthcare workers

Ryan T Demmer; Angela K Ulrich; Talia D Wiggen; Ali Strickland; Brianna M Naumchik; Shalini Kulasingam; Steven D Stovitz; Clarisse Marotz; Pedro Belda-Ferre; Greg Humphrey; Peter De Hoff; Louise Laurent; Susan Kline; Rob Knight

doi:10.1017/ice.2021.81

Severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) screening among symptom-free healthcare workers

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2022 May;43(5):657-660. doi: 10.1017/ice.2021.81. Epub 2021 Mar 12.

Authors

Ryan T Demmer^{1

2}, Angela K Ulrich¹, Talia D Wiggen¹, Ali Strickland³, Brianna M Naumchik⁴, Shalini Kulasingam¹, Steven D Stovitz⁵, Clarisse Marotz⁶, Pedro Belda-Ferre⁶, Greg Humphrey⁶, Peter De Hoff⁷, Louise Laurent⁷, Susan Kline⁸, Rob Knight^{6

9

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
² Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York, New York.
³ Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
⁴ Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
⁵ Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California.
⁷ Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California.
⁸ Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine, Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
⁹ Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California.
¹⁰ Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California.
¹¹ Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California.

Abstract

Transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is possible among symptom-free individuals. Patients are avoiding medically necessary healthcare visits for fear of becoming infected in the healthcare setting. We screened 489 symptom-free healthcare workers for SARS-CoV-2 and found no positive results, strongly suggesting that the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 was <1%.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / diagnosis
Delivery of Health Care
Health Personnel
Humans
Mass Screening
SARS-CoV-2*

Grants and funding

P2C HD041023/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States