Prospective Observational COVID-19 Screening and Monitoring of Asymptomatic Cancer Center Health-Care Workers with a Rapid Serological Test

Paradiso, Angelo Virgilio; De Summa, Simona; Silvestris, Nicola; Tommasi, Stefania; Tufaro, Antonio; Larocca, Angela Maria Vittoria; D’Addabbo, Vincenzo; Raffaele, Donata; Cafagna, Vito; Garrisi, Vito Michele; De Palma, Giuseppe

Health-care workers (HCW) are at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and, if asymptomatic, for transmitting the virus to fragile cancer patients. We monitored all asymptomatic HCWs of a cancer institute (94% of all employees agreed to enter the study) with the rapid serological test, VivaDiag(TM), identifying SARS-CoV-2 associated-IgM/IgG. The tests were performed at time 0 (n = 606) and after 14 days (n = 393). Overall, the VivaDiag(TM) results of nine HCWs (1.5%) were positive, with one confirmed to be SARS-CoV-2-positive after oropharyngeal swab testing by RT-PCR. At time 0, all nine cases showed IgM expression while IgG was detected in only one. After 14 days, IgM persisted in all the cases, while IgG became evident in four. A chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) confirmed IgM positivity in 5/13 VivaDiag(TM) positive cases and IgG positivity in 4/5 VivaDiag(TM) positive cases. Our study suggests that the VivaDiag(TM) test can be of help in identifying SARS-CoV-2 infected people in cohorts of subjects with a high prevalence.