If Not COVID-19 What Is It? Analysis of COVID-19 versus Common Respiratory Viruses among Symptomatic Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Infectious Disease Referral Hospital in Manila, Philippines

Agrupis, Kristal An; Villanueva, Annavi Marie G.; Sayo, Ana Ria; Lazaro, Jezreel; Han, Su Myat; Celis, Alyannah C.; Suzuki, Shuichi; Uichanco, Ann Celestyn; Sagurit, Jocelyn; Solante, Rontgene; Yoshida, Lay-Myint; Ariyoshi, Koya; Smith, Chris

The COVID-19 global pandemic is entering its second year. In this short report we present additional results as a supplement to our previous paper on COVID-19 and common respiratory virus screening for healthcare workers (HCWs) in a tertiary infectious disease referral hospital in Manila, Philippines. We sought to understand what etiologic agents could explain the upper/lower respiratory tract infection-like (URTI/LRTI-like) symptoms exhibited by 88% of the 324 HCWs tested. Among the patients who had URTI/LRTI-like symptoms, only seven (2%) were positive for COVID-19, while 38 (13%) of the symptomatic participants were identified positive for another viral etiologic agent. Rhinovirus was the most common infection, with 21 (9%) of the symptomatic participants positive for rhinovirus. Based on these results, testing symptomatic HCWs for common respiratory illnesses in addition to COVID-19 should be considered during this time of global pandemic.