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Oxford University Press - PMC COVID-19 Collection logoLink to Oxford University Press - PMC COVID-19 Collection
. 2020 Jul 20:ciaa1020. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1020

Lessons from Mass-Testing for COVID-19 in Long Term Care Facilities for the Elderly in San Francisco

Janice K Louie 1,2,, Hyman M Scott 1,2, Amie DuBois 1, Natalya Sturtz 1, Wendy Lu 1, Juliet Stoltey 1,2, Godfred Masinde 1, Stephanie Cohen 1,2, Darpun Sachdev 1, Susan Philip 1,2, Naveena Bobba 1, Tomas Aragon 1,3; San Francisco Department of Public Health COVID-19 Skilled Nursing Facility Outbreak Response Team
PMCID: PMC7454340  PMID: 32687150

Abstract

COVID-19 can cause significant mortality in the elderly in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCF). We describe four LTCF outbreaks where mass testing identified a high proportion of asymptomatic infections (4-41% in health care workers and 20-75% in residents), indicating that symptom-based screening alone is insufficient for monitoring for COVID-19 transmission.

Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, skilled nursing facility, elderly, infection control, mass testing, health care worker


Articles from Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

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