Query: sars co-v-2 rapid test school

title: At home self testing of teachers with a SARS CoV 2 rapid antigen test to reduce potential transmissions in schools
abstract: Rapid antigen tests for SARS CoV 2 became available recently, offering an opportunity to vastly increase testing capacities. Antigen tests offer lower sensitivity than the gold standard, RT PCR, but rapid sample to answer time. High frequency testing with an antigen test may offset the lower sensitivity, and testing can be done with at home collection of samples, offering potential benefit in screening efforts. In this study, we set out to evaluate the practical application of self performed high frequency antigen test in a school setting.  A total of 711 teachers from 86 schools were enrolled in a seven week study. After instruction, participants tested themselves every 48 hours at home with a rapid antigen test for SARS CoV 2 (target: nucleocapsid protein) in a self collected anterior nasal swab. Positive results in the antigen test were confirmed via RT PCR from the same sample that had been determined to be positive by the study participant. A questionnaire was given to all participants to evaluate whether the test failed to detect infection.  836 tests from 602 teachers were recorded and analyzed. A total of five confirmed cases of viral shedding of SARS CoV 2 was detected by use of the antigen test. One study participant with a SARS CoV 2 infection was presymptomatic and four were mildly symptomatic at the time of the antigen test. Sixteen false positive antigen tests (0.15% of all tests) were reported, predominantly when the local incidence in the general population was low. In four cases, the study participant reported that a PCR had detected a SARS CoV 2 infection, but the antigen test was negative, indicating a false negative result.  High frequency, self performed rapid antigen tests can detect individuals with a SARS CoV 2 infection, and therefore potentially reduce transmissions. Testing may be most beneficial when applied during high local incidence of SARS CoV 2 infections and when mild or atypical symptoms are present. To avoid a high rate of false positive results, a test with optimized specificity should be used.

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

title: Real life evaluation of a rapid antigen test (PanbioTM COVID 19 Ag Rapid Test
abstract: Real life evaluation of a rapid antigen test (PanbioTM COVID 19 Ag Rapid Test 2 Device) for SARS CoV 2 detection in asymptomatic close contacts of COVID 19 3 patients 4 Ignacio Torres, Sandrine Poujois, Eliseo Albert, Javier Colomina, and David 5 Navarro 6 Microbiology Service, Hospital Clinico Universitario, INCLIVA Research Institute, 7 Valencia, Spain. 8 Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Valencia, Valencia, 9 Spain.

title: Back to school: use of Dried Blood Spot for the detection of SARS CoV 2 specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) among schoolchildren in Milan, Italy.
abstract: Serological surveillance is necessary to the reestablishment of school activities in safe conditions and to avoid school related outbreaks. In this study, DBS (Dried Blood Spots) have proven to be a simple, rapid and reliable sample collection tool for detecting antibodies against SARS CoV 2 by ELISA test compared to matched serum samples from venous sampling (R2=0.9553; Pearson's coefficient=0.98; Cohen's unweighted k=0.93; overall agreement=96.2% This approach may facilitate sample collection from schoolchildren for serological surveys useful to an adequate risk assessment.

title: COVID 19: Rapid Antigen detection for SARS CoV 2 by lateral flow assay: a national systematic evaluation for mass testing
abstract: New lateral flow device (LFD) viral antigen immunoassays have been developed by commercial and research organisations around the world as diagnostic tests for SARS CoV 2 infection. To support decisions by the UK Government on potential scale up of mass population testing, we have at their request evaluated the diagnostic performance of a significant number of point of care rapid SARS CoV 2 LFDs.  132 LFDs were initially reviewed by a Department of Health and Social Care team, part of the UK government, from which 64 were selected for further evaluation. Standardised laboratory evaluations, and for those that met the published criteria, field testing in the Falcon C19 research study and UK pilots were performed (UK COVID 19 testing centres, hospital, schools, armed forces)  4/64 LFDs so far have desirable performance characteristics from independent laboratory studies and early preliminary field evaluations (Orient Gene, Deepblue and Innova SARS CoV 2 Antigen Rapid Qualitative Test) of which one underwent extended clinical assessment in field studies (Innova) 8951 Innova LFD tests were performed with a kit failure rate of 5.6% (502/8951, 95% CI: 5.1 6.1) false positive rate of 0.32% (22/6954, 95% CI: 0.20 0.48) and a viral antigen detection/sensitivity (using RNA RT PCR as a proxy for the presence of antigen) of 78.8% when performed by laboratory scientists (156/198, 95% CI 72.4 84.3) Sensitivity was significantly lower when testing was undertaken by non experts with limited initial training  Several LFDs have promising performance characteristics for mass population testing and can be used to identify infectious positive individuals. The Innova LFD shows good viral antigen detection/sensitivity with excellent specificity, although kit failure rates and the impact of training are potential issues. These results support the expanded evaluation of LFDs, and assessment of greater access to testing on COVID 19 transmission.

title: Evaluation of the Abbott BinaxNOW rapid antigen test for SARS CoV 2 infection in children: Implications for screening in a school setting
abstract: Rapid antigen tests hold much promise for use in the school environment. However, the performance of these tests in non clinical settings and among one of the main target populations in schools asymptomatic children is unclear. To address this gap, we examined the positive and negative concordance between the BinaxNOW(tm) rapid SARS CoV 2 antigen assay and an RT PCR test among children at a community based Covid 19 testing site.  We conducted rapid antigen (BinaxNOW(tm) and oral fluid RT PCR (Curative Labs) tests on children presenting at a walk up testing site in Los Angeles County from November 25, 2020 to December 9, 2020. Positive concordance was determined as the fraction of RT PCR positive participants that were also antigen positive. Negative concordance was determined as the fraction of RT PCR negative participants that were also antigen negative. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the association between positive or negative concordance and participant age, race ethnicity, sex at birth, symptoms and Ct values.  226 children tested positive on RT PCR; 127 children or 56.2% (95% CI: 49.5% to 62.8% of these also tested positive on the rapid antigen test. Positive concordance was higher among symptomatic children (64.4% 95% CI: 53.4% to 74.4% compared to asymptomatic children (51.1% 95% CI: 42.5% to 59.7% Positive concordance was negatively associated with Ct values and was 93.8% (95% CI: 69.8% to 99.8% for children with Ct values less than or equal to 25. 548 children tested negative on RT PCR; 539 or 98.4% (95% CI: 96.9% to 99.2% of these also tested negative on the rapid antigen test. Negative concordance was higher among asymptomatic children.  Rapid antigen testing can successfully identify most COVID infections in children with viral load levels likely to be infectious. Serial rapid testing may help compensate for limited sensitivity in early infection.

title: Implementation of SARS CoV2 Screening in K 12 Schools using In School Pooled Molecular Testing and Deconvolution by Rapid Antigen Test
abstract: SARS CoV2 testing is a key component of a multi layered mitigation strategy to enable safe return to in person school for the K 12 population. However, costs, logistics, and uncertainty about effectiveness are potential barriers to implementation. Over three months, 259,726 individual swabs were tested across 50,636 pools from 582 schools. Pool positivity rate was 0.8% 98.1% of pools tested negative and 0.3% inconclusive, and 0.8% of pools submitted could not be tested. In reflex testing, 92.5% of fully deconvoluted pools with N1 or N2 target Ct <30 yielded a positive individual using the BinaxNOW antigen rapid diagnostic test (Ag RDT) performed 1 3 days later. With sufficient staffing support and low pool positivity rates, pooled sample collection and reflex testing were feasible for schools. Screening testing for K 12 students and staff is achievable at scale and at low cost with a scheme that incorporates in school pooling, RT PCR primary testing, and Ag RDT reflex/deconvolution testing. Staffing support is a key factor for program success.

title: Implementation of SARS CoV2 Screening in K 12 Schools Using In School Pooled Molecular Testing and Deconvolution by Rapid Antigen Test
abstract: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV2) testing is one component of a multilayered mitigation strategy to enable safe in person school attendance for the K 12 school population. However, costs, logistics, and uncertainty about effectiveness are potential barriers to implementation.  Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV2) testing is one component of a multilayered mitigation strategy to enable safe in person school attendance for the K 12 school population. However, costs, logistics, and uncertainty about effectiveness are potential barriers to implementation. We assessed early data from the Massachusetts K 12 public school pooled SARS CoV2 testing program, which incorporates two novel design elements: in school "pod pooling" for assembling pools of dry anterior nasal swabs from 5 to 10 individuals and positive pool deconvolution using the BinaxNOW antigen rapid diagnostic test (Ag RDT) to assess the operational and analytical feasibility of this approach. Over 3 months, 187,597 individual swabs were tested across 39,297 pools from 738 schools. The pool positivity rate was 0.8% 98.2% of pools tested negative and 0.2% inconclusive, and 0.8% of pools submitted could not be tested. Of 310 positive pools, 70.6% had an N1 or N2 probe cycle threshold (CT) value of =30. In reflex testing (performed on specimens newly collected from members of the positive pool) 92.5% of fully deconvoluted pools with an N1 or N2 target CT of =30 identified a positive individual using the BinaxNOW test performed 1 to 3 days later. However, of 124 positive pools with full reflex testing data available for analysis, 32 (25.8% of BinaxNOW pool deconvolution testing attempts did not identify a positive individual, requiring additional reflex testing. With sufficient staffing support and low pool positivity rates, pooled sample collection and reflex testing were feasible for schools. These early program findings confirm that screening for K 12 students and staff is achievable at scale with a scheme that incorporates in school pooling, primary testing by reverse transcription PCR (RT PCR) and Ag RDT reflex/deconvolution testing.

title: High frequency self testing of schoolteachers for SARS CoV 2 with a rapid antigen test: findings of the Safe School Hesse study

title: A community deployable SARS CoV 2 screening test using raw saliva with 45 minutes sample to results turnaround
abstract: Up to 70% of SARS CoV 2 infections in working and school age people are asymptomatic (Poletti et al. 2020) creating anxiety over reopening workplaces and schools around the world. In the absence of effective treatments or a vaccine, peace of mind will come only with community based SARS CoV 2 screening, where many people are tested on a regular basis. However, recent models show that short sample to answer turnaround time will be a critical property of effective screening strategies (Larremore et al. 2020) Here, we describe an RT LAMP test for SARS CoV 2 in raw saliva that takes about 45 minutes from sample to answer and requires only simple equipment (pipettes and a heating source) The assay has a limit of detection of 100 virions per microliter, and targets two separate regions of the SARS CoV 2 genome. By combining rapid sample to answer turnaround time with the use of saliva, our RT LAMP assay provides a low complexity, portable, and robust system for real time community screening.