Review: Outcomes of universal COVID-19 testing following detection of incident cases in 11 long-term care facilities

Review: Outcomes of universal COVID-19 testing following detection of incident cases in 11 long-term care facilities

This research letter discusses a study that employed universal COVID testing of previously untested nursing home residents across 11 Maryland long-term care facilities.

  • Untested residents were asymptomatic.
  • This study identified an additional 354 cases of positive SARS-CoV-2 infection(39.6% of residents tested) . This is compared to the original 153 cases identified via targeted symptom-based testing.
  • Solely utilizing symptom-based testing may miss a substantial number of asymptomatic residents who can perpetuate transmission in long-term care facilities.
  • COVID outbreaks and mortality in long term care facilities may be lowered by increased testing and case detection.

Bigelow BF, Tang O, Barshick B. Outcomes of Universal COVID-19 Testing Following Detection of Incident Cases in 11 Long-term Care Facilities.  JAMA Intern Med. Published online July 14, 2020. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.3738

Summary authored by Daniel Chimitt with edits by Jennifer Carnahan, MD, MPH, MA

|2020-08-03T08:35:10-04:00July 31st, 2020|COVID-19 Literature|Comments Off on Review: Outcomes of universal COVID-19 testing following detection of incident cases in 11 long-term care facilities

About the Author: James Dudley

James Dudley

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