Universal admission screening strategy for COVID-19 highlighted the clinical importance of reporting SARS-CoV-2 viral loads

M Moraz; D Jacot; M Papadimitriou-Olivgeris; L Senn; G Greub; K Jaton; O Opota

doi:10.1016/j.nmni.2020.100820

Universal admission screening strategy for COVID-19 highlighted the clinical importance of reporting SARS-CoV-2 viral loads

New Microbes New Infect. 2020 Nov:38:100820. doi: 10.1016/j.nmni.2020.100820. Epub 2020 Nov 19.

Authors

M Moraz¹, D Jacot¹, M Papadimitriou-Olivgeris^{2

3}, L Senn³, G Greub^{1

2}, K Jaton¹, O Opota¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Microbiology, University of Lausanne and Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland.
² Infectious Diseases Service, University of Lausanne and Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland.
³ Service of Hospital Preventive Medicine, University of Lausanne and Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Abstract

Previously limited to symptomatic patients, our hospital introduced a universal admission screening strategy for coronavirus disease 2019 on 25 April 2020. All patients were tested by RT-PCR. We observed decreased viral loads linked to increased screening of asymptomatic patients highlighting the fact that viral load values could guide infection control decisions.

Keywords: Asymptomatic patients; RT-PCR; coronavirus disease 2019; infection control; pre-hospitalization; screening; severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus 2; viral load.

Publication types

Editorial