Online symptoms screening and testing of Covid-19 through RT-LAMP saliva of students and asymptomatic employees in a public school in Brazil.

Abstract

Objective To evaluate a respiratory symptoms screening system and test asymptomatic individuals (high school students and employees) at a public school in Brazil. Methods SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) of saliva samples was performed weekly. Results A total of 969 samples were tested (mean of 108 tests per week). No asymptomatic participants tested positive for COVID-19, and no cases of COVID-19 transmission occurred at school despite the high transmissibility of the Delta variant, the local predominant variant at the time of the study. Conclusion Implementation of an online system of respiratory symptom screening and testing of COVID-19 through saliva in asymptomatic individuals is a feasible, low-cost and practical option to be used, especially in low-income countries.