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. 2021 Feb 9;18(4):1638.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041638.

Repeated Antigen-Based Rapid Diagnostic Testing for Estimating the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Prevalence from the Perspective of the Workers' Vulnerability before and during the Lockdown

Ourania S Kotsiou  1   2 , Ioannis Pantazopoulos  2 , Dimitrios Papagiannis  3 , Evangelos C Fradelos  1   3 , Nikolaos Kanellopoulos  2 , Dimitra Siachpazidou  2 , Paraskevi Kirgou  2 , Dimitra S Mouliou  2 , Athanasios Kyritsis  2 , Georgios Kalantzis  4 , Georgios K D Saharidis  4 , Efthymios Tzounis  5 , Konstantinos I Gourgoulianis  2
Affiliations

Repeated Antigen-Based Rapid Diagnostic Testing for Estimating the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Prevalence from the Perspective of the Workers' Vulnerability before and during the Lockdown

Ourania S Kotsiou et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: No previous study has investigated the SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and the changes in the proportion of positive results due to lockdown measures from the angle of workers' vulnerability to coronavirus in Greece. Two community-based programs were implemented to evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and investigate if the prevalence changes were significant across various occupations before and one month after lockdown.

Methods: Following consent, sociodemographic, clinical, and job-related information were recorded. The VivaDiag™ SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test was used. Positive results confirmed by a real-time Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction for SARS-COV-2.

Results: Positive participants were more likely to work in the catering/food sector than negative participants before the lockdown. Lockdown restrictions halved the new cases. No significant differences in the likelihood of being SARS-CoV-2 positive for different job categories were detected during lockdown. The presence of respiratory symptoms was an independent predictor for rapid antigen test positivity; however, one-third of newly diagnosed patients were asymptomatic at both time points.

Conclusions: The catering/food sector was the most vulnerable to COVID-19 at the pre-lockdown evaluation. We highlight the crucial role of community-based screening with rapid antigen testing to evaluate the potential modes of community transmission and the impact of infection control strategies.

Keywords: antigen rapid test; employment; job; lockdown restrictions; screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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