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.
CITATION STYLE
Stadler, R. N., Maurer, L., Aguilar-Bultet, L., Franzeck, F., Ruchti, C., Kühl, R., … Tschudin-Sutter, S. (2021). Systematic screening on admission for SARS-CoV-2 to detect asymptomatic infections. Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-021-00912-z
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