Abstract
Background: Combined nasal-and-throat swabs (CNTS) is less invasive and easy to execute. CNTS also induces lower risk to healthcare workers upon collection. However, there is a lack of data on viral load assessment for population-wide testing.
Objective: This study assessed if CNTS is suitable as an alternative specimen type for the detection of SARS-CoV-2.
Methods: We assessed the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in CNTS collected from COVID-19 individuals through the 2-week period of the Universal Community Testing Programme (UCTP) conducted in Hong Kong. In addition, we compared viral loads of SARS-CoV-2 for the paired CNTS and non-CNTS specimens among these individuals.
Results: This UCTP identified 48 COVID-19 individuals from nearly 2 million specimens collected. The viral loads of SARS-CoV-2 varied widely, cycle threshold values Ct 16.28-36.94, among symptoms and asymptomatic individuals. The viral loads for the paired CNTS and non-CNTS specimens were comparable.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that CNTS could be a specimen of choice for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2.
Keywords: COVID-19; Combined nasal-and-throat swabs; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2; Universal Community Testing Programme.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, RT-PCR, Combined nasal-and-throat swabs, Universal Community Testing Programme., 【초록키워드】 Healthcare workers, Symptom, RT-PCR, healthcare worker, Testing, Asymptomatic individuals, Viral load, Swab, Hong Kong, Cycle threshold value, throat swabs, individual, viral loads, choice, specimen, lower risk, invasive, Combined, CNTS, lack, collected, addition, conducted, less, demonstrated, induce, comparable, individuals, diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, Universal, 【제목키워드】 Testing, Swab, assessment, individual, SARS-CoV-2 viral load, collected, Universal,