Comparison of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms at diagnosis among healthcare personnel before and after the emergence of the omicron variant

Laracy, Justin; Robilotti, Elizabeth; Yan, Judy; Bianchi, Anabella Lucca; Aslam, Anoshé; Babady, N. Esther; Kamboj, Mini

doi:10.1017/ice.2022.105

Cited by 17 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The proportion of asymptomatic infection in our cohort was lower than studies described previously from South Africa (23%) and China (46.7%) but was similar to a cohort of healthcare personnel from New York (11%) during Omicron epidemic. [19,20,21] The actual proportion of asymptomatic infection in our cohort could be overestimated as the clinical data could have been submitted during pre-symptomatic stage of infection. Although being symptomatic and having exposure history were the most common reasons for undergoing testing, regular mandatory RAT played an important role in promote testing as up to 26.66% of the infected staff were identified as a result of such policy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Impact of COVID-19 Vaccination on Healthcare Worker Infection Rate and Outcome during SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Outbreak in Hong Kong

Zee¹,

Kwok²,

Kee³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Immune escape is observed with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (Pango lineage B.1.1.529), the predominant circulating strain worldwide. Booster dose was shown to restore immunity against Omicron infection, however, real world data comparing mRNA (BNT162b2; Comirnaty) and inactivated vaccine (CoronaVac; Sinovac) homologous and heterologous boosting is lacking. A retrospective study was performed to compare the rate and outcome of COVID-19 in healthcare workers (HCWs) with various vaccination regime during a territory-wide Omicron outbreak in Hong Kong. During the study period 1 Feb – 31 Mar 2022, 3167 HCWs were recruited, 871 HCWs reported 746 and 183 episodes of significant household and non-household close contact. 737 HCWs acquired COVID-19 which were all clinically mild. Time dependent Cox regression showed that, comparing with 2-dose vaccination, 3-dose vaccination reduced infection risk by 31.7% and 89.3% in household contact and non-household close contact respectively. Using 2-dose BNT162b2 as reference, 2-dose CoronaVac recipient had significantly higher risk of being infected (HR 1.69 P<0.0001). Three-dose BNT162b2 (HR 0.4778 P<0.0001) and 2-dose CoronaVac + BNT162b2 booster (HR 0.4862 P=0.0157) were associated with lower risk of infection. Three-dose CoronaVac and 2-dose BNT162b2 + CoronaVac booster were not significantly different from 2-dose BNT162b2. The mean time to achieve negative RT-PCR or E gene cycle threshold 31 or above was not affected by age, number of vaccine dose taken, vaccine type and timing of the last dose. In summary, we have demonstrated lower risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCWs given BNT162b2 as booster after 2 doses of BNT162b2 or CoronaVac.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Impact of COVID-19 Vaccination on Healthcare Worker Infection Rate and Outcome during SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Outbreak in Hong Kong

Zee¹,

Kwok²,

Kee³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similarly, Bhattacharya et al reported that fever and loss of smell are important predictors for the diagnosis of COVID-19 [ 10 ]. However, it should be noted that different clinical characteristics were reported for each epidemic strain of COVID-19 [ 11 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple Symptom-Based Prediction of COVID-19: A Single-Center Study of Outpatient Fever Clinic in Japan

Inaba¹,

Nakao²,

Ikeda³

et al. 2023

Cureus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms are not fully understood in non-hospitalized individuals in Japan, and COVID-19 differentiation by symptoms alone remained challenging. Therefore, this study aimed to examine COVID-19 prediction from symptoms using real-world data in an outpatient fever clinic.Methods: We compared the symptoms of COVID-19-positive and negative patients who visited the outpatient fever clinic at Imabari City Medical Association General Hospital and tested for COVID-19 from April 2021 to May 2022. This retrospective single-center study enrolled 2,693 consecutive patients.Results: COVID-19-positive patients had a higher frequency of close contact with COVID-19-infected patients compared with COVID-19-negative patients. Moreover, patients with COVID-19 had high-grade fever at the clinic compared with patients without COVID-19. Additionally, the most common symptom in patients with COVID-19 was sore throat (67.3%), followed by cough (62.0%), which was approximately twice as common in patients without COVID-19. COVID-19 was more frequently identified in patients having a fever (≥37.5℃) with a sore throat, a cough, or both. The positive COVID-19 rate reached approximately half (45%) when three symptoms were present.Conclusion: These results suggested that COVID-19 prediction by combinations of simple symptoms and close contact with COVID-19-infected patients might be useful and lead to recommendations for testing of COVID-19 in symptomatic individuals.

show abstract

“…This should be done in the future to verify differences between ethnicities, and this may also “sharpen” the ethnic distinctions which may be blurred by ethnically mixed cohorts. For example, the large fraction of Asians and/or Latinos/Hispanics in the cohorts of Weil et al [48] and (likely) of Laracy et al [49] may explain the relatively low overall prevalence of hyposmia in their studies. Although ethnic patterns are emerging, more detailed analyses in future studies may allow to assign a more precise prevalence of olfactory dysfunction to each major ethnicity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2). Twenty-two studies were from populations primarily of European ancestry [8,32,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59], eight studies on East Asians [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67], three studies on South Asians [68][69][70], three studies on Latinos [71][72][73], four studies on populations in Africa [74][75][76][77], and one study from West Asia (Turkey [78]). The location of studies, with the prevalence indicated by the color intensity, and the cohort size indicated by the size of the circles, shows that Western countries report the highest prevalence, while studies from East Asia and Africa report the lowest prevalence (Fig.…”

Section: Properties Of Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence of Olfactory Dysfunction with the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Bartheld

Wang

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The omicron variant is thought to cause less olfactory dysfunction than previous variants of SARS-CoV-2, but the reported prevalence differs greatly between populations and studies. Our systematic review and meta-analysis provide information about regional differences in prevalence as well as an estimate of the global prevalence of olfactory dysfunction based on 41 studies reporting on nearly 600,000 patients infected with the omicron variant. Our estimate of the omicron-induced prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in populations of European ancestry is 11.6%, while it is significantly lower in all other populations, at 2.9-5.4%. When ethnic differences and population sizes are taken into account, the global prevalence of omicron-induced hyposmia in adults is estimated at 5.2%. Omicron's effect on olfaction is 3-4fold lower than that of the alpha or delta variant, according to previous meta-analyses and our analysis of studies that directly compared prevalence of olfactory dysfunction between omicron and previous variants. The profile of prevalence differences between ethnicities mirrors the results of a recent genome-wide association study that implicated a gene locus encoding an odorant-metabolizing enzyme, UDP glycosyltransferase, to be linked to the extent of COVID-related loss of smell. Our analysis is consistent with the hypothesis that this enzyme contributes to the observed population differences.

show abstract

Comparison of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms at diagnosis among healthcare personnel before and after the emergence of the omicron variant

Cited by 17 publications

References 6 publications

Impact of COVID-19 Vaccination on Healthcare Worker Infection Rate and Outcome during SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Outbreak in Hong Kong

Impact of COVID-19 Vaccination on Healthcare Worker Infection Rate and Outcome during SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Outbreak in Hong Kong

Simple Symptom-Based Prediction of COVID-19: A Single-Center Study of Outpatient Fever Clinic in Japan

Prevalence of Olfactory Dysfunction with the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About