Clinical importance of reporting SARS-CoV-2 viral loads across the different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

Moraz, Milo; Jacot, Damien; Papadimitriou-Olivgeris, Matthaios; Senn, Laurence; Greub, Gilbert; Jaton, Katia; Opota, Onya

On April 25th, corresponding to the first deconfinement phase after the end of the lockdown in Switzerland, a universal admission screening strategy for COVID-19 was introduced in our hospital. All patients, including asymptomatic patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In addition to a qualitative answer, providing viral load values to the RT-PCR results not only helped the clinician to evaluate the stage of the infection but addressed patient contagiousness and guided infection control decisions. Here, we discuss the importance of reporting viral load values when a shift from a symptomatic to a universal screening strategy was performed.