Viral and serological testing of SARS-CoV-2 among health care workers and patients in Vietnam

Abstract

h 2 ( Vietnam reports a total of 1819 cases with 35 deaths (as on 2 February 2021), and transmission driven by clusters of cases 1] . A rapid, proactive and decisive government response in the arly stages of the epidemic in identifying and delineating infecion hotspots has led to effective case control management [2] . The sustainability of health systems is significantly challenged y the current COVID 19 pandemic, as frontline health care workrs (HCWs) in patient-facing roles are at increased risk [3] . The im of this single center hospital-based study was to describe the revalence of SARS-CoV-2 by viral and serological testing in one of he largest hospitals in Vietnam, which serves 20 0 0 hospitalized atients and approximately 40 0 0 outpatients per day. The study was approved by the institutional review board of the 08 Military Central Hospital, Hanoi, Vietnam (108 MCH-Protocol umber 02RES-CoV-3–2020). Between 01 March 2020 and 08 Janary 2021, we used a combination of RT-PCR assays to detect SARSoV-2 RNA and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to detect nti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins (IgM) and total antibodies (See