SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Testing of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Individuals on the University of Arizona Campus

David T Harris; Michael Badowski; Brandon Jernigan; Ryan Sprissler; Taylor Edwards; Randall Cohen; Stephen Paul; Nirav Merchant; Craig C Weinkauf; Christian Bime; Heidi E Erickson; Billie Bixby; Sairam Parthasarathy; Sachin Chaudhary; Bhupinder Natt; Elaine Cristan; Tammer El Aini; Franz Rischard; Janet Campion; Madhav Chopra; Michael Insel; Afshin Sam; James L Knepler; Kenneth Knox; Jarrod Mosier; Catherine Spier; Michael D Dake

doi:10.3390/biomedicines9050539

SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Testing of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Individuals on the University of Arizona Campus

Biomedicines. 2021 May 12;9(5):539. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9050539.

Authors

David T Harris^{1

2}, Michael Badowski¹, Brandon Jernigan¹, Ryan Sprissler³, Taylor Edwards³, Randall Cohen⁴, Stephen Paul⁴, Nirav Merchant⁵, Craig C Weinkauf⁶, Christian Bime⁷, Heidi E Erickson⁷, Billie Bixby⁷, Sairam Parthasarathy⁷, Sachin Chaudhary⁷, Bhupinder Natt⁷, Elaine Cristan⁷, Tammer El Aini⁷, Franz Rischard⁷, Janet Campion⁷, Madhav Chopra⁷, Michael Insel⁷, Afshin Sam⁷, James L Knepler⁷, Kenneth Knox⁸, Jarrod Mosier⁹, Catherine Spier¹⁰, Michael D Dake¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Biorepository, College of Medicine-Tucson, University of Arizona Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
² Department of Immunobiology & Medicine, College of Medicine-Tucson, University of Arizona Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
³ College of Medicine-Tucson, University of Arizona Genetics Core, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
⁴ Department of Athletic, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
⁵ Data Science Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
⁶ Department of Surgery, College of Medicine-Tucson, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
⁷ Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, College of Medicine-Tucson, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
⁸ Department of Medicine, University of Arizona-Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ 85724, USA.
⁹ Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Pathology, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
¹¹ Office of the Senior Vice-President for Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID19, has caused a pandemic that has infected more than 80 M and killed more than 1.6 M persons worldwide. In the US as of December 2020, it has infected more than 32 M people while causing more than 570,000 deaths. As the pandemic persists, there has been a public demand to reopen schools and university campuses. To consider these demands, it is necessary to rapidly identify those individuals infected with the virus and isolate them so that disease transmission can be stopped. In the present study, we examined the sensitivity of the Quidel Rapid Antigen test for use in screening both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals at the University of Arizona from June to August 2020. A total of 885 symptomatic and 1551 asymptomatic subjects were assessed by antigen testing and real-time PCR testing. The sensitivity of the test for both symptomatic and asymptomatic persons was between 82 and 90%, with some caveats.

Keywords: PCR; SARS-CoV-2; asymptomatic; diagnostic screening; rapid antigen test.

Grants and funding

K08 HL141623/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States