Serological testing reveals the hidden COVID-19 burden among healthcare workers experiencing a SARS-CoV-2 nosocomial outbreak.

Abstract

We describe the results of testing healthcare workers from a tertiary care hospital in Japan, which had experienced a COVID-19 outbreak during the first peak of the pandemic, for SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody seroconversion. Using two chemiluminescent immunoassays and a confirmatory surrogate virus neutralization test, serological testing unveiled that a surprising 42.2% (27/64) of overlooked COVID-19 diagnoses had occurred when case detection had relied solely on SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid amplification testing. This undetected portion of the COVID-19 iceberg beneath the surface may potentially have led to silent transmissions and triggered the spread. A questionnaire-based risk assessment was further indicative of exposures to specific aerosol-generating procedures, i.e. non-invasive ventilation, having had conveyed the highest transmission risks and served as the origin of outbreak. Our observations are supportive of a multi-tiered testing approach, including the use of serological diagnostics, in order to accomplish exhaustive case detection along the whole COVID-19 spectrum.