Antigen testing for COVID can be a useful tool for healthcare systems’ return-to-work guidance
About 60% of healthcare workers participating in an optional rapid antigen testing program at UCLA tested positive at day five, and about 50% were positive at day seven after initially testing positive for COVID-19 with a PCR test. The results indicated those with positive tests were more likely to be infectious and were not allowed to return to work until after 10 days of isolation.
From Dec. 25, 2021 to Feb. 4, 2022, UCLA Health ran an optional program in which 870 healthcare workers with COVID and were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic with improving symptoms could return to work after five days of isolation if a subsequent antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 was negative. They underwent the rapid antigen test five or more days after their initial positive COVID PCR test.
Some limitations to the findings include an inability to perform viral cultures or repeat PCR tests and a lack of data on infections that may have occurred during work hours, though that risk was likely low due to masking and the fact that workers were allowed to return only after a negative test. Also, only about 37% of the 2,316 UCLA healthcare workers who had positive PCR tests during the period volunteered for the optional antigen testing program.
The findings demonstrate how the rapid antigen test can be used to triage healthcare workers for returning to work during periods of acute staffing shortages during COVID surges. They also show that a majority of healthcare workers remain antigen positive five to seven days following COVID-19 infection. Other healthcare systems can also look to these findings as they implement their own return-to-work testing programs.
