Abstract
Background: International travel poses the risk of importing SARS-CoV-2 infections and introducing new viral variants into the country of destination. Established measures include mandatory quarantine with the opportunity to abbreviate it with a negative rapid antigen test (RAT).
Methods: A total of 1,488 returnees were tested for SARS-CoV-2 with both PCR and RAT no earlier than 5 days after arrival. We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of the RAT. Positive samples were evaluated for infectivity in vitro in a cell culture outgrowth assay. We tracked if participants who tested negative were reported positive within 2 weeks of the initial test.
Results: Potential infectiousness was determined based on symptom onset analysis, resulting in a sensitivity of the antigen test of 89% in terms of infectivity. The specificity was 100%. All positive outgrowth assays were preceded by a positive RAT, indicating that all participants with proven in vitro infectivity were correctly identified. None of the negative participants tested positive during the follow-up.
Conclusions: RAT no earlier than the 5th day after arrival was a reliable method for detecting infectious travellers and can be recommended as an appropriate method for managing SARS-CoV-2 travel restrictions. Compliance to the regulations and a high standard of test quality must be ensured.
Keywords: Antigen test; Quarantine; SARS-CoV-2 testing; Travel regulations.
【저자키워드】 quarantine, SARS-CoV-2 testing, antigen test, Travel regulations., 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, quarantine, SARS-COV-2 infection, risk, in vitro, Antigen, sensitivity, specificity, PCR, Sensitivity and specificity, SARS-CoV-2 testing, Cell culture, Travel, Compliance, Follow-up, viral variant, SARS-CoV-2 infections, Analysis, symptom onset, Regulation, All participants, measure, participant, positive, country, initial, resulting, tested, include, reported, evaluated, was determined, Potential, mandatory, 【제목키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Antigen, International, screening strategy, approach,