Article Summary
August 11, 2020
An Understanding of Discordant SARS-CoV-2 Test Results: An Examination of the Data from a Central Auckland Laboratory
Results from a retrospective observational study of patients with initial negative and subsequent positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR results in New Zealand suggest repeat testing may be indicated for patients who have a significant risk factor for infection and an initial negative test result. A total of 20,089 samples were received for SARS-CoV-2 testing. Of 2,011 samples from patients with multiple tests, 25 samples were positive. Nine samples were from patients who…
Re-Testing for SARS-CoV-2: Patterns of Testing from a Large U.S. Healthcare System
Kennedy et al. performed a retrospective chart review of all in–patients and out–patients age ≥18 years old with at least 2 SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests and found that that re-testing for SARS-CoV-2 was uncommon and often resulted in multiple negative tests. The majority of individuals were re-tested due to pre-procedural asymptomatic screening or clinical suspicion for COVID-19 disease. Kennedy et al. (Aug 10,…
SARS-CoV-2 IgG Antibody Responses in New York City
Reifer et al. describe positive SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody responses in 12,424 of 28,523 (44%) people tested who were participating in primary care and urgent care facilities in the New York City metropolitan area. For a subset of patients (n=240) who received a symptom severity score, patients who reported more severe clinical had higher serum levels of…
Effect of Social Distancing Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Incidence of Viral Respiratory Tract Infections in Children in Finland During Early 2020
An assessment of the immediate effects of COVID-19 national lockdown orders on pediatric emergency room visits and respiratory tract infections in Finland indicates that social distancing and other lockdown strategies slowed the spreading of common respiratory viral diseases and decreased the need for hospitalization among children. A major decrease in the rate of daily median pediatric emergency room visits was detected in both hospitals in the study…
Newborns of COVID-19 Mothers: Short-Term Outcomes of Colocating and Breastfeeding from the Pandemic’s Epicenter
A retrospective cross-sectional study from a New York hospital with high incidence of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection found that newborns did not show signs of infection after birth (n=45 live births from SARS-CoV-2-positive mothers). Patil et al. additionally reported no short-term adverse neonatal outcomes with skin-to-skin care, rooming-in, or breastfeeding in infants of SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers. Of the SARS-CoV-2-positive…
Facility-Wide Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Nursing Homes — Seven U.S. Jurisdictions, March–June 2020
Facility-wide testing for SARS-CoV-2 in nursing homes following the identification of an initial COVID-19 case in the facility yielded a prevalence of 12%, compared to 0.4% when facility-wide testing was conducted in nursing homes without a previous COVID-19 case. In facilities with a previous COVID-19 case, it was estimated that for each additional day before completion of facility-wide…
Facility-Wide Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Nursing Homes — Seven U.S. Jurisdictions, March–June 2020
Facility-wide testing for SARS-CoV-2 in nursing homes following the identification of an initial COVID-19 case in the facility yielded a prevalence of 12%, compared to 0.4% when facility-wide testing was conducted in nursing homes without a previous COVID-19 case. In facilities with a previous COVID-19 case, it was estimated that for each additional day before completion of facility-wide…
Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Community Hospital
At a large tertiary community hospital in New York City, the rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health care workers (n=3,046) was lower than what has been reported for the general public in the surrounding region. Among the hospital employees, 10% tested positive for antibodies, compared to seroprevalence estimates of 21% for New York City and 17% for Long Island. There were no…
August 10, 2020
First-in-Human Trial of a SARS CoV 2 Recombinant Spike Protein Nanoparticle Vaccine
[pre-print, not peer-reviewed] NVX-CoV2373, a recombinant nanoparticle vaccine, induced mean anti-spike IgG and neutralizing antibody responses that exceeded the mean responses in sera from convalescent COVID-19 patients with clinically significant illness. There were no serious adverse events and reactogenicity was mainly mild and not long-lasting. Keech et al. (Aug 6, 2020). First-in-Human Trial of a SARS CoV 2…
Using a Real-World Network to Model Localized COVID-19 Control Strategies
Firth et al. simulated COVID-19 transmission control strategies in a real-world social network (based on GPS data gathered by tracking 468 individuals in a UK town). Isolation of individuals when they became symptomatic resulted in 66% of the population infected, and primary contact tracing resulted in 48% infected. Secondary contact tracing resulted in 16% of…
Previous page Next page