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Time Lag between COVID-19 Diagnosis and Symptoms Onset for Different Population Groups: Evidence That Self-Testing in Schools Was Associated with Timely Diagnosis among Children

Early identification of COVID-19 cases has been vital for reducing transmission and enabling treatment. In Greece, in autumn 2021 when Delta was the predominant circulating variant, unvaccinated citizens had to be tested before attending activities, and self-testing was required twice a week for stu...

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Autores principales: Mellou, Kassiani, Sapounas, Spyros, Panagoulias, Ioannis, Gkova, Maria, Papadima, Kalliopi, Andreopoulou, Anastasia, Kalotychou, Danai, Chatzopoulos, Michalis, Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani, Papaevangelou, Vassiliki, Tsiodras, Sotirios, Panagiotakopoulos, Georgios, Zaoutis, Theoklis, Paraskevis, Dimitrios
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9506207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36143342
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12091305
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author Mellou, Kassiani
Sapounas, Spyros
Panagoulias, Ioannis
Gkova, Maria
Papadima, Kalliopi
Andreopoulou, Anastasia
Kalotychou, Danai
Chatzopoulos, Michalis
Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani
Papaevangelou, Vassiliki
Tsiodras, Sotirios
Panagiotakopoulos, Georgios
Zaoutis, Theoklis
Paraskevis, Dimitrios
author_facet Mellou, Kassiani
Sapounas, Spyros
Panagoulias, Ioannis
Gkova, Maria
Papadima, Kalliopi
Andreopoulou, Anastasia
Kalotychou, Danai
Chatzopoulos, Michalis
Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani
Papaevangelou, Vassiliki
Tsiodras, Sotirios
Panagiotakopoulos, Georgios
Zaoutis, Theoklis
Paraskevis, Dimitrios
author_sort Mellou, Kassiani
collection PubMed
description Early identification of COVID-19 cases has been vital for reducing transmission and enabling treatment. In Greece, in autumn 2021 when Delta was the predominant circulating variant, unvaccinated citizens had to be tested before attending activities, and self-testing was required twice a week for students (5–17 years). Here, we describe the time of diagnosis by age group and possible exposure to assess testing strategies (September to November 2021). Information on the presence of symptoms at the time of diagnosis was available for 69,298 cases; 24,855 (36%) were asymptomatic or tested the same day as onset (early diagnosis), 21,310 (31%) reported testing one day after, and 23,133 (33%) did so two or more days after the onset of symptoms. The median lag was 2 days (1–14). Early diagnosis significantly differed among age groups (p-value < 0.001) and was higher among children. For every one-year increase of age, the odds of an early diagnosis were reduced by 1%. Cases exposed during training activities or in settings such as accommodation centers and hospitals were more frequently diagnosed early. The percentage of persons having a positive self-test before a rapid test/PCR diagnosis ranged from 7% in the age group of 60 years and above to 86% in the age group of 5–17 years. The provision of self-tests in schools and increased testing in closed settings led to an earlier diagnosis and probably to a decreased transmission of the virus in the period during which Delta was the predominant variant in Greece. However, more effort is needed for early diagnosis of adults in the community, especially after the onset of symptoms.
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spelling pubmed-95062072022-09-24 Time Lag between COVID-19 Diagnosis and Symptoms Onset for Different Population Groups: Evidence That Self-Testing in Schools Was Associated with Timely Diagnosis among Children Mellou, Kassiani Sapounas, Spyros Panagoulias, Ioannis Gkova, Maria Papadima, Kalliopi Andreopoulou, Anastasia Kalotychou, Danai Chatzopoulos, Michalis Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani Papaevangelou, Vassiliki Tsiodras, Sotirios Panagiotakopoulos, Georgios Zaoutis, Theoklis Paraskevis, Dimitrios Life (Basel) Article Early identification of COVID-19 cases has been vital for reducing transmission and enabling treatment. In Greece, in autumn 2021 when Delta was the predominant circulating variant, unvaccinated citizens had to be tested before attending activities, and self-testing was required twice a week for students (5–17 years). Here, we describe the time of diagnosis by age group and possible exposure to assess testing strategies (September to November 2021). Information on the presence of symptoms at the time of diagnosis was available for 69,298 cases; 24,855 (36%) were asymptomatic or tested the same day as onset (early diagnosis), 21,310 (31%) reported testing one day after, and 23,133 (33%) did so two or more days after the onset of symptoms. The median lag was 2 days (1–14). Early diagnosis significantly differed among age groups (p-value < 0.001) and was higher among children. For every one-year increase of age, the odds of an early diagnosis were reduced by 1%. Cases exposed during training activities or in settings such as accommodation centers and hospitals were more frequently diagnosed early. The percentage of persons having a positive self-test before a rapid test/PCR diagnosis ranged from 7% in the age group of 60 years and above to 86% in the age group of 5–17 years. The provision of self-tests in schools and increased testing in closed settings led to an earlier diagnosis and probably to a decreased transmission of the virus in the period during which Delta was the predominant variant in Greece. However, more effort is needed for early diagnosis of adults in the community, especially after the onset of symptoms. MDPI 2022-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC9506207/ /pubmed/36143342 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12091305 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Mellou, Kassiani
Sapounas, Spyros
Panagoulias, Ioannis
Gkova, Maria
Papadima, Kalliopi
Andreopoulou, Anastasia
Kalotychou, Danai
Chatzopoulos, Michalis
Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani
Papaevangelou, Vassiliki
Tsiodras, Sotirios
Panagiotakopoulos, Georgios
Zaoutis, Theoklis
Paraskevis, Dimitrios
Time Lag between COVID-19 Diagnosis and Symptoms Onset for Different Population Groups: Evidence That Self-Testing in Schools Was Associated with Timely Diagnosis among Children
title Time Lag between COVID-19 Diagnosis and Symptoms Onset for Different Population Groups: Evidence That Self-Testing in Schools Was Associated with Timely Diagnosis among Children
title_full Time Lag between COVID-19 Diagnosis and Symptoms Onset for Different Population Groups: Evidence That Self-Testing in Schools Was Associated with Timely Diagnosis among Children
title_fullStr Time Lag between COVID-19 Diagnosis and Symptoms Onset for Different Population Groups: Evidence That Self-Testing in Schools Was Associated with Timely Diagnosis among Children
title_full_unstemmed Time Lag between COVID-19 Diagnosis and Symptoms Onset for Different Population Groups: Evidence That Self-Testing in Schools Was Associated with Timely Diagnosis among Children
title_short Time Lag between COVID-19 Diagnosis and Symptoms Onset for Different Population Groups: Evidence That Self-Testing in Schools Was Associated with Timely Diagnosis among Children
title_sort time lag between covid-19 diagnosis and symptoms onset for different population groups: evidence that self-testing in schools was associated with timely diagnosis among children
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9506207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36143342
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12091305
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