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. 2022 Aug;15(8):902-905.
doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2022.06.020. Epub 2022 Jul 7.

De-isolation of vaccinated COVID-19 health care workers using rapid antigen detection test

Abeer N Alshukairi  1 , Awad Al-Omari  2 , Mohammad K Al Hroub  3 , Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq  4 , Mohammed Qutub  5 , Samaher Shaikh  3 , Khalid Allali  3 , Mohammed F Saeedi  6 , Roaa S Alosaimi  7 , Elaf Alamoudi  5 , Lama K Hefni  6 , Aiman El-Saed  8 , Fatma S Alhamlan  9 , Ashraf Dada  10 , Ghassan Y Wali  6
Affiliations

De-isolation of vaccinated COVID-19 health care workers using rapid antigen detection test

Abeer N Alshukairi et al. J Infect Public Health. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 de-isolation guidelines of health care workers (HCW) were formulated based on evidence describing the duration of infectious viral shedding of the wild SARS-CoV-2 virus. During the periods of COVID-19 vaccination and variants, a test-based approach was recommended to end isolation of HCW, based on emerging data describing the viral kinetics of COVID-19 variants. While Rapid antigen detection tests (RADT) are increasingly used in the diagnosis of COVID-19, their use is limited in de-isolation.

Methods: We described the use of RADT in the de-isolation of COVID-19 vaccinated HCW with mild infection who were asymptomatic on day 7 post diagnosis in a single center retrospective cohort study during the Omicron surge.

Results: Of the 480 HCWs, 173 (36%) had positive RADT. The positivity rate of RADT was not different in HCW who received two doses versus three doses of vaccine (34.4% versus 40.3%, p = 0.239).

Conclusions: A symptom based, test-based approach using RADT is a useful tool in the de-isolation of HCW, with mild disease, in the era of Omicron. Further studies are required to evaluate the role of RADT in de-isolation of patients with severe COVID-19 disease.

Keywords: COVID-19; De-isolation; Health care workers; Rapid Antigen test.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest None.

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