Community Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Among Patients With Influenzalike Illnesses Presenting to a Los Angeles Medical Center in March 2020

Brad Spellberg; Meredith Haddix; Rebecca Lee; Susan Butler-Wu; Paul Holtom; Hal Yee; Prabhu Gounder

doi:10.1001/jama.2020.4958

Community Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Among Patients With Influenzalike Illnesses Presenting to a Los Angeles Medical Center in March 2020

JAMA. 2020 May 19;323(19):1966-1967. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.4958.

Authors

Brad Spellberg¹, Meredith Haddix², Rebecca Lee², Susan Butler-Wu¹, Paul Holtom¹, Hal Yee³, Prabhu Gounder²

Affiliations

¹ Los Angeles County + University of Southern California Medical Center, Los Angeles.
² Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, California.
³ Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Los Angeles, California.

Abstract

This study characterizes the prevalence of reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction results positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) among patients presenting with influenzalike illness who underwent nasopharyngeal swab testing for influenza and respiratory syncytial virus over 4 days in March 2020.

MeSH terms

Betacoronavirus / isolation & purification*
COVID-19
COVID-19 Testing
Clinical Laboratory Techniques
Coronavirus Infections / diagnosis
Coronavirus Infections / epidemiology*
Emergency Service, Hospital
Humans
Influenza, Human / diagnosis
Los Angeles / epidemiology
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral / diagnosis
Pneumonia, Viral / epidemiology*
Prevalence
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
SARS-CoV-2
Sentinel Surveillance