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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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9506207 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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