Asymptomatic surveillance testing for COVID-19 in health care professional students: lessons learned from a low prevalence setting

Alyssa G Burrows; Sophia Linton; Jenny Thiele; Prameet M Sheth; Gerald A Evans; Stephen Archer; Katharine M Doliszny; Marcia Finlayson; Leslie Flynn; Yun Huang; Azim Kasmani; T Hugh Guan; Allison Maier; Adrienne Hansen-Taugher; Kieran Moore; Anthony Sanfilippo; Erna Snelgrove-Clarke; Dean A Tripp; David M C Walker; Stephen Vanner; Anne K Ellis

doi:10.1186/s13223-023-00769-4

Asymptomatic surveillance testing for COVID-19 in health care professional students: lessons learned from a low prevalence setting

Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. 2023 Mar 29;19(1):25. doi: 10.1186/s13223-023-00769-4.

Authors

Alyssa G Burrows^{1

2}, Sophia Linton^{1

2}, Jenny Thiele^{1

2}, Prameet M Sheth^{3

4

5}, Gerald A Evans¹, Stephen Archer^{1

6}, Katharine M Doliszny¹, Marcia Finlayson⁷, Leslie Flynn⁸, Yun Huang⁵, Azim Kasmani^{9

10}, T Hugh Guan^{1

9

10

11}, Allison Maier⁹, Adrienne Hansen-Taugher⁹, Kieran Moore^{9

10}, Anthony Sanfilippo¹, Erna Snelgrove-Clarke¹², Dean A Tripp¹³, David M C Walker^{14

11}, Stephen Vanner^{1

4}, Anne K Ellis^{15

16

17}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
² Allergy Research Unit, Watkins 1D, Kingston Health Sciences Centre-KGH Site, 76 Stuart, Kingston, ON, K7L2V7, Canada.
³ Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
⁴ Gastrointestinal Disease Research Unit (GIDRU), Faculty of Health Science, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
⁵ Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
⁶ Queen's CardioPulmonary Unit, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
⁷ School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
⁸ Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
⁹ Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health, Kingston, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ Department of Family Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
¹¹ School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
¹² Faculty of Health Sciences School of Nursing, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
¹³ Department of Psychology, Anesthesia, Urology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
¹⁴ Department of Emergency Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
¹⁵ Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Anne.Ellis@kingstonhsc.ca.
¹⁶ Allergy Research Unit, Watkins 1D, Kingston Health Sciences Centre-KGH Site, 76 Stuart, Kingston, ON, K7L2V7, Canada. Anne.Ellis@kingstonhsc.ca.
¹⁷ Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Anne.Ellis@kingstonhsc.ca.

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely impacted the training of health care professional students because of concerns of potential asymptomatic transmission to colleagues and vulnerable patients. From May 27th, 2020, to June 23rd 2021; at a time when B.1.1.7 (alpha) and B.1.617.2 (delta) were the dominant circulating variants, PCR testing was conducted on 1,237 nasopharyngeal swabs collected from 454 asymptomatic health care professional students as they returned to their studies from across Canada to Kingston, ON, a low prevalence area during that period for COVID-19. Despite 46.7% of COVID-19 infections occurring in the 18-29 age group in Kingston, severe-acute-respiratory coronavirus-2 was not detected in any of the samples suggesting that negligible asymptomatic infection occurred in this group and that PCR testing in this setting may not be warranted as a screening tool.

Keywords: Asymptomatic testing; COVID-19; Health care professional students; Infectious disease; Influenza a&b; RT-PCR; Respiratory syncytial virus; Screening questionnaire; Young adults.