Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov-Dec:38:101901.
doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101901. Epub 2020 Oct 10.

Incidence of COVID-19 among returning travelers in quarantine facilities: A longitudinal study and lessons learned

Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq  1 , Amar Sattar  2 , Husain Al-Khadra  2 , Saeed Al-Qahtani  2 , Mobarak Al-Mulhim  3 , Omar Al-Omoush  2 , Hatim O Kheir  2
Affiliations

Incidence of COVID-19 among returning travelers in quarantine facilities: A longitudinal study and lessons learned

Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq et al. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: The emergence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had resulted in an unpresented global pandemic. In the initial events, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia implemented mandatory quarantine of returning travelers in order to contain COVID-19 cases.

Materials and methods: This is a longitudinal study of the arriving travelers to Quarantine facilities and the prevalence of positive SARS-CoV-2 as detected by RT-PCR.

Results: During the study period, there was a total of 1928 returning travelers with 1273 (66%) males. The age range was 28 days-69 years. Of all the travelers, 23 (1.2%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Of the first swab, 14/1928 (0.7%) tested positive. The positivity rate was 0.63% and 0.92% among males and females, respectively (P = 0.57). The second swab was positive in 9 (0.5%) of the other 1914 who were initially negative with a positivity rate of 0.39% and 0.62% among males and females, respectively (P = 0.49). There was no statistical difference in the positivity rates between first and second swab (P = 0.4). Of all travelers, 40 (n = 26, 1.3%) were admitted from the quarantine facility to the hospital due to COVID-19 related positive results or development of symptoms such as fever, cough, and respiratory symptoms; and 14 (0.7%) were admitted due to non-COVID-19 related illness.

Conclusion: This study showed the efforts put for facility quarantine and that such activity yielded a lower incidence of positive cases. There was a need to have a backup healthcare facility to accommodate those developing a medical need for evaluation and admission for non-COVID-19 related illnesses.

Keywords: COVID-19; Quarantine; SARS-CoV-2; Travelers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A diagram showing the different multidisciplinary Efforts in the Quarantine Facilities.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A diagram showing the cyclical peaks of needed resources at the Quarantine Facilities. The X-axis shows the days of Quarantine.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Timeline of Arriving Travelers into the Quarantine Facilities.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
A bar-graph showing the distribution of the age group of returning travelers.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The Positivity Rate of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR among Returning Travelers according to the 1st and 2nd Swab among males, females, and all travelers.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Al-Tawfiq J.A., Gautret P. Asymptomatic Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection: extent and implications for infection control: a systematic review. Trav Med Infect Dis. 2019;27:27–32. doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2018.12.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Al-Omari A., Alhuqbani W.N., Zaidi A.R.Z., Al-Subaie M.F., AlHindi A.M., Abogosh A.K. Clinical characteristics of non-intensive care unit COVID-19 patients in Saudi Arabia: a descriptive cross-sectional study. J Infect Public Health. 2020 doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2020.09.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Al-Tawfiq J.A., Memish Z.A. COVID-19 in the eastern mediterranean region and Saudi Arabia: prevention and therapeutic strategies. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020;55 doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105968. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Al-Tawfiq J.A., Leonardi R., Fasoli G., Rigamonti D. Prevalence and fatality rates of COVID-19: what are the reasons for the wide variations worldwide? Trav Med Infect Dis. 2020:101711. doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101711. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shi H., Han X., Jiang N., Cao Y., Alwalid O., Gu J. Radiological findings from 81 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20:425–434. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30086-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed