Association between household exposure and cycle threshold in COVID-19 infected health care workers.

Objective: Household SARS-COV-2 contact constitutes a high-risk exposure for health care workers (HCWs). Cycle threshold (Ct) of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction testing provides an estimate of COVID-19 viral load, which can inform clinical and workplace management. We assessed whether Ct values differed between HCWs with COVID-19 with and without household exposure.

Saliva as a testing specimen with or without pooling for SARS-CoV-2 detection by multiplex RT-PCR test.

Background: Sensitive and high throughput molecular detection assays are essential during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The vast majority of the SARS-CoV-2 molecular assays use nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) or oropharyngeal swab (OPS) specimens collected from suspected individuals. However, using NPS or OPS as specimens has apparent drawbacks, e.

Cycle Threshold to Test Positivity in COVID-19 for Return to Work Clearance in Health Care Workers.

Objective: To ascertain whether reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) cycle amplifications until detection, the cycle threshold (Ct), could help inform return to work (RTW) strategies for health care workers (HCWs) recovering from COVID-19 infection.

Methods: Sequential Ct data from COVID-19 nasal pharyngeal (NP) RT-PCR testing in all COVID-19 positive HCWs at a single institution. Analysis of Ct in relation to time until negative testing for RTW clearance.