Utilisation of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen assays in screening asymptomatic hospital visitors: mitigating the risk in low-incidence settings

Int J Infect Dis. 2022 Jan:114:132-134. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.11.011. Epub 2021 Nov 9.

Abstract

Retrospective contact tracing, enabled by the use of automated visitor-management systems and digital contact tracing, together with rapid antigen detection (RAD) for SARS-CoV-2 among visitors staying ≥ 30 minutes, identified COVID-19 cases in < 0.01% (6/72 605) of hospital visitors to a large hospital campus over an 8-week study period. The potential for nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from hospital visitors was thus very low, and could be further mitigated by universal mask-wearing among staff and visitors.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; antigen test; outbreak; point-of-care testing; visitors.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Contact Tracing
  • Hospitals
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Retrospective Studies
  • SARS-CoV-2*