Symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in K-12 schools, British Columbia, Canada April to June 2021

Choi, Alexandra; Bardwell, Samantha; Kayda, Iryna; Zhao, Yanjie; Xu, Yang Xin Zi; Markarian, Ani; Coombs, Daniel; Macdonald, Adrienne; Watts, Allison W.; Dhillon, Nalin; Irvine, Michael; O'Reilly, Collette; Lavoie, Pascal M.; Goldfarb, David M.

Symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in K-12 schools, British Columbia, Canada April to June 2021

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dc.contributor.author: Choi, Alexandra; Bardwell, Samantha; Kayda, Iryna; Zhao, Yanjie; Xu, Yang Xin Zi; Markarian, Ani; Coombs, Daniel; Macdonald, Adrienne; Watts, Allison W.; Dhillon, Nalin; Irvine, Michael; O'Reilly, Collette; Lavoie, Pascal M.; Goldfarb, David M.; Goldfarb, David M.
dc.date.accessioned: 2024-11-22T16:15:30Z
dc.date.available: 2024-11-22T16:15:30Z
dc.date.issued: 2022-07-06
dc.description.abstract - en: We prospectively studied SARS-CoV-2 transmission at schools in an era of variants of concern, offering all close contacts serial viral asymptomatic testing up to 14 days. From the 69 primary cases detected in schools, 392 close contacts were identified and offered asymptomatic testing. A total of 229 (58%) were close school contacts, and of these, 3 tested positive (1.3%), 2 of which were detected through asymptomatic testing. This is in contrast to the 117 household contacts, where 43 (37%) went on to become secondary cases. Routine asymptomatic testing of close contacts should be examined in the context of local testing rates, preventive measures, programmatic costs, and health impacts of asymptomatic transmission. IMPORTANCE There is concern that schools may be a setting where asymptomatic infections might result in significant “silent” transmission of SARS-CoV-2, particularly after the emergence of more transmissible variants of concern. After the programmatic implementation of a strategy of asymptomatic testing of close COVID-19 contacts as part of contact tracing in the school setting, the majority of the secondary cases were still found to have occurred in home or social contacts. However, for the 6.2% of secondary cases that occurred in close school contacts, the majority were detected through asymptomatic testing. The potential added yield of this approach needs to be considered within the overall setting, including consideration of the local epidemiology, ongoing goals of case and contact management, additional costs, logistical challenges for families, and possible health impacts of asymptomatic transmission.
dc.description.sponsorship: The study was funded by the Federal Government of Canada via its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF). P.M.L. and L.C.M. receive salary support from the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation through Investigator Grant Award Programs. CO’R is an employee of the Vancouver School District, but the District was not involved in the design, analysis, interpretation of the data or the drafting of this manuscript.
dc.identifier.doi: https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.00622-22
dc.identifier.issn: 2165-0497
dc.identifier.pubmedID: 35862938
dc.identifier.uri: https://open-science.canada.ca/handle/123456789/3172
dc.language.iso: en
dc.publisher - en: American Society for Microbiology
dc.rights - en: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
dc.rights - fr: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
dc.rights.uri - en: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.uri - fr: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.fr
dc.subject - en: Health; Coronavirus diseases; Epidemiology
dc.subject - fr: Santé; Maladie à coronavirus; Épidémiologie
dc.subject.en - en: Health; Coronavirus diseases; Epidemiology
dc.subject.fr - fr: Santé; Maladie à coronavirus; Épidémiologie
dc.title - en: Symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in K-12 schools, British Columbia, Canada April to June 2021
dc.type - en: Article
dc.type - fr: Article
local.article.journalissue: 4
local.article.journaltitle - en: Microbiology Spectrum
local.article.journalvolume: 10
local.pagination: 1-6
local.peerreview - en: Yes
local.peerreview - fr: Oui