ABSTRACT
This cross-sectional study, including children hospitalized for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection, demonstrates for the first time that nonhealthcare worker parents perform similarly to healthcare workers in the administration to their children of an unsupervised nasal swab for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 detection by following written instructions and video tutorials.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/virology , SARS-CoV-2/isolation & purification , COVID-19/diagnosis , COVID-19 Testing , Child , Child, Preschool , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Health Personnel , Humans , Infant , Male , Nasal Mucosa/virology , ParentsABSTRACT
The sample collection procedure for SARS-CoV-2 has a strong impact on diagnostic capability, contact tracing approach, ultimately affecting the infection containment performance. This study demonstrates that self-collected nasal-swab has shown to be a valid and well tolerated procedure to SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in a healthcare system. More significantly, no performance adequacy difference was detected in self-administered swabs between healthcare worker (HCW) and non-HCW which allows to speculate that this procedure could be successfully extended to the entire population for mass screening.