Respiratory virus detection during the COVID-19 pandemic in Queensland, Australia.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine if non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) impacted on respiratory virus detections in Queensland, Australia, during the COVID-19 pandemic year of 2020.

Methods

We analysed weekly counts of influenza, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, and adenovirus available from a Queensland laboratory network for the year 2020. These were compared with averaged counts from 2015 to 2019.

Results

Overall, 686,199 tests were performed. The timing of NPI implementation was associated with a sharp and sustained decline in influenza, where during the typical annual influenza season (weeks 23-40) no cases were detected from 163,296 tests compared with an average of 26.1% (11,844/45,396) of tests positive in 2015-2019. Sim

SUBMITTER: El-Heneidy A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8652525 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature