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. 2021 May 12;9(5):539.
doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9050539.

SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Testing of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Individuals on the University of Arizona Campus

David T Harris  1   2 , Michael Badowski  1 , Brandon Jernigan  1 , Ryan Sprissler  3 , Taylor Edwards  3 , Randall Cohen  4 , Stephen Paul  4 , Nirav Merchant  5 , Craig C Weinkauf  6 , Christian Bime  7 , Heidi E Erickson  7 , Billie Bixby  7 , Sairam Parthasarathy  7 , Sachin Chaudhary  7 , Bhupinder Natt  7 , Elaine Cristan  7 , Tammer El Aini  7 , Franz Rischard  7 , Janet Campion  7 , Madhav Chopra  7 , Michael Insel  7 , Afshin Sam  7 , James L Knepler  7 , Kenneth Knox  8 , Jarrod Mosier  9 , Catherine Spier  10 , Michael D Dake  11
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Testing of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Individuals on the University of Arizona Campus

David T Harris et al. Biomedicines. .

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID19, has caused a pandemic that has infected more than 80 M and killed more than 1.6 M persons worldwide. In the US as of December 2020, it has infected more than 32 M people while causing more than 570,000 deaths. As the pandemic persists, there has been a public demand to reopen schools and university campuses. To consider these demands, it is necessary to rapidly identify those individuals infected with the virus and isolate them so that disease transmission can be stopped. In the present study, we examined the sensitivity of the Quidel Rapid Antigen test for use in screening both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals at the University of Arizona from June to August 2020. A total of 885 symptomatic and 1551 asymptomatic subjects were assessed by antigen testing and real-time PCR testing. The sensitivity of the test for both symptomatic and asymptomatic persons was between 82 and 90%, with some caveats.

Keywords: PCR; SARS-CoV-2; asymptomatic; diagnostic screening; rapid antigen test.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of PCR cycle thresholds in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Subjects were tested simultaneously by Ag and PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2. Patients were broadly grouped into symptomatic patients presenting at campus health and asymptomatic subjects on the university campus. Subgroup results were analyzed based on the combination of results for each test. Violin plots of the data are shown. Each circle represents an independent measurement for a subject.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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