Systematic screening on admission for SARS-CoV-2 to detect asymptomatic infections
Rahel Stadler, Laura Maurer, Lisandra Aguilar‐Bultet, Fabian Franzeck, Chantal Ruchti, Richard Küehl, Andreas F. Widmer, Ruth Schindler, Roland Bingisser, Katharina Rentsch, Hans Pargger, Raoul Sutter, Luzius A. Steiner, Christoph Meier, W Kübler, Hans H. Hirsch, Adrian Egli, Manuel Battegay, Stefano Bassetti, Sarah Tschudin‐Sutter
Abstract
The proportion of asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains elusive and the potential benefit of systematic screening during the SARS-CoV-2-pandemic is controversial. We investigated the proportion of asymptomatic inpatients who were identified by systematic screening for SARS-CoV-2 upon hospital admission. Our analysis revealed that systematic screening of asymptomatic inpatients detects a low total number of SARS-CoV-2 infections (0.1%), questioning the cost-benefit ratio of this intervention. Even when the population-wide prevalence was low, the proportion of asymptomatic carriers remained stable, supporting the need for universal infection prevention and control strategies to avoid onward transmission by undetected SARS-CoV-2-carriers during the pandemic.