Asymptomatic surveillance testing for COVID-19 in health care professional students: lessons learned from a low prevalence setting.
Alyssa G Burrows, Sophia Linton, Jenny Thiele, Prameet M Sheth, Gerald A Evans, Stephen Archer, Katharine M Doliszny, Marcia Finlayson, Leslie Flynn, Yun Huang, Azim Kasmani, T Hugh Guan, Allison Maier, Adrienne Hansen-Taugher, Kieran Moore, Anthony Sanfilippo, Erna Snelgrove-Clarke, Dean A Tripp, David M C Walker, Stephen Vanner, Anne K Ellis
Author Information
Alyssa G Burrows: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Sophia Linton: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Jenny Thiele: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Prameet M Sheth: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Gerald A Evans: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Stephen Archer: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Katharine M Doliszny: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Marcia Finlayson: School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Leslie Flynn: Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Yun Huang: Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Azim Kasmani: Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health, Kingston, ON, Canada.
T Hugh Guan: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Allison Maier: Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Adrienne Hansen-Taugher: Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Kieran Moore: Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Anthony Sanfilippo: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Erna Snelgrove-Clarke: Faculty of Health Sciences School of Nursing, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Dean A Tripp: Department of Psychology, Anesthesia, Urology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
David M C Walker: Department of Emergency Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Stephen Vanner: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Anne K Ellis: Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Anne.Ellis@kingstonhsc.ca. ORCID
The novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely impacted the training of health care professional students because of concerns of potential asymptomatic transmission to colleagues and vulnerable patients. From May 27th, 2020, to June 23rd 2021; at a time when B.1.1.7 (alpha) and B.1.617.2 (delta) were the dominant circulating variants, PCR testing was conducted on 1,237 nasopharyngeal swabs collected from 454 asymptomatic health care professional students as they returned to their studies from across Canada to Kingston, ON, a low prevalence area during that period for COVID-19. Despite 46.7% of COVID-19 infections occurring in the 18-29 age group in Kingston, severe-acute-respiratory coronavirus-2 was not detected in any of the samples suggesting that negligible asymptomatic infection occurred in this group and that PCR testing in this setting may not be warranted as a screening tool.
