Article Summary
April 30, 2021
Tocilizumab in Patients Admitted to Hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): A Randomised, Controlled, Open-Label, Platform Trial
A randomized, controlled, open-label study of 4,116 adults hospitalized with severe COVID-19 found that administration of the anti-inflammatory medication tocilizumab reduced mortality, increased the chances of successful hospital discharge, and reduced the chances of requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. During a 28-day follow-up period, patients who received tocilizumab were significantly more likely to be discharged from…
Large University with High COVID-19 Incidence Did Not Increase Risk to Non-Student Population
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] The COVID-19 incidence among non-student residents of Centre County, PA (home to Penn State University) was lower than among non-student residents of neighboring counties after students returned to classes in fall 2020. However, the rate of COVID-19 among student residents of Centre County was higher than among non-residents in all surrounding counties….
Household COVID-19 Risk and in-Person Schooling
A large, national survey of US adults in all 50 states and Washington, DC (N=2,142,887) found an association between living with a child who attended in-person school and the risk of COVID-19-associated outcomes, including reporting COVID-like illness (OR=1.4) or testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (OR=1.3), although this association did not persist when ≥7 in-school mitigation measures…
April 29, 2021
Association of Maternal SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Pregnancy With Neonatal Outcomes
SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy (from conception to 1 week after birth) was significantly associated with a 1.4-fold higher risk of any neonatal respiratory disorder after matching for maternal characteristics in a nationwide cohort study in Sweden (n=88,159 infants). Admission for neonatal care, respiratory distress syndrome, and hyperbilirubinemia were also associated with maternal SARS-CoV-2 test positivity….
Temporal Dynamics of Viral Load and False Negative Rate Influence the Levels of Testing Necessary to Combat COVID-19 Spread
A SARS-CoV-2 transmission model calibrated to a university population with 50% asymptomatic infections suggests that temporal viral load dynamics, which account for viral loads below detectable levels prior to symptom onset, could result in false negative rates of 17-48%. The authors suggest that models that do not account for the effect of this undetectable period…
Prothrombotic Immune Thrombocytopenia after COVID-19 Vaccine
5 cases of prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia were identified in Germany at 5 to 11 days after receiving the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Clinical manifestations included cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, splanchnic vein thrombosis, arterial cerebral thromboembolism, and thrombotic microangiopathy. Anti-PF4/polyanion antibodies were detected in all patients. After anticoagulation alone or in combination with eculizumab…
Antibody Response to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Messenger RNA Vaccination in Pregnant Women and Transplacental Passage Into Cord Blood
Among 122 pregnant women who delivered on or after 35 weeks gestation and received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine by the time of delivery (n= 55 first dose, n=67 both doses), anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies were detected in maternal blood as early as 5 days and in cord blood as early as 16 days after the first…
Maternal Antibody Response, Neutralizing Potency, and Placental Antibody Transfer After Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Infection
Among maternal blood samples from SARS-CoV-2 positive patients obtained after delivery (n=32), higher median anti-RBD IgG titers were significantly associated with symptomatic (vs. asymptomatic) infection but not with having a PCR-positive test more than 14 days earlier (vs. PCR-positive test within 14 days). Paired cord blood samples also obtained after delivery show that median cord/maternal…
Complications of COVID-19 Nasopharyngeal Swab Test
Complications requiring emergency department treatment from nasopharyngeal swab sampling for SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests occurred in 1.24 per 100,000 tests during a 7-month period in Helsinki University Hospital, Finland. Out of over 640,000 PCR tests performed, 8 complication-related visits were identified in patients presenting to the emergency department (4 nasal bleeds, of which half were potentially…
A Comparison of Less Invasive SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostic Specimens in Nursing Home Residents — Arkansas, June–August 2020
In a comparison study of longitudinally collected samples for SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing among nursing home residents within 15 days of their first positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCRS result (n=17), saliva swabs (SA) and oropharyngeal swabs (OR) were PCR-positive for up to 48 days. Anterior nasal swabs (AN) were only positive for up to 33 days, but had…
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