Daily Rapid Antigen Exit Testing to Tailor University COVID-19 Isolation Policy

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Emerg Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Earnest, Rebecca ; Chen, Christine ; Chaguza, Chrispin ; Hahn, Anne M. ; Grubaugh, Nathan D. ; Wilson, Madeline S.
• Corporate Authors:
  for the Yale COVID-19 Resulting and Isolation Team2
• Description:
  We evaluated daily rapid antigen test (RAT) data from 323 COVID-19-positive university students in Connecticut, USA, during an Omicron-dominant period. Day 5 positivity was 47% for twice-weekly screeners and 26%-28% for less-frequent screeners, approximately halving each subsequent day. Testing negative >10 days before diagnosis (event time ratio (ETR) 0.85 [95% CI 0.75-0.96]) and prior infection >90 days (ETR 0.50 [95% CI 0.33-0.76]) were significantly associated with shorter RAT positivity duration. Symptoms before or at diagnosis (ETR 1.13 [95% CI 1.02-1.25]) and receipt of 3 vaccine doses (ETR 1.20 [95% CI 1.04-1.39]) were significantly associated with prolonged positivity. Exit RATs enabled 53%-74% of students to leave isolation early when they began isolation at the time of the first positive test, but 15%-22% remained positive beyond the recommended isolation period. Factors associated with RAT positivity duration should be further explored to determine relationships with infection duration.
• Subjects:
  COVID-19 Humans Policy SARS-COV-2 Students Universities Vaccines
• Source:
  Emerg Infect Dis. 2022; 28(12):2455-2462
• Pubmed ID:
  36417936
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC9707582
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  28
• Issue:
  12
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:36e0555e5fd0e9337f1c2e4187cf877f31d830e44bd5a3621abddd261bfb67b0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/123329/cdc_123329_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.39 MB ]