Routine saliva testing for the identification of silent COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Current COVID-19 guidelines recommend symptom-based screening and regular nasopharyngeal (NP) testing for healthcare personnel in high-risk settings. We sought to estimate case detection percentages with various routine NP and saliva testing frequencies.

Design

Simulation modelling study.

Methods

We constructed a sensitivity function based on the average infectiousness profile of symptomatic COVID-19 cases to determine the probability of being identified at the time of testing. This function was fitted to reported data on the percent positivity of symptomatic COVID-19 patients using NP testing. We then simulated a routine testing program with different NP and saliva testing frequencies to determine case detection percentages during the infectious period, as

SUBMITTER: Zhang K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7709182 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature