The UK healthcare system has been profoundly affected by the COVID‐19 Pandemic, including skin cancer departments. Despite service capacity and a worldwide increase in incidence, anecdotal reports suggest a decline in skin cancer diagnoses following COVID‐19. To determine if there is a decrease in skin cancer diagnosis in the UK in the COVID‐19 era, we analysed data from the Northern Cancer Network from March 23
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2020 to June 23
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2020 and compared it to the same period last year. In the COVID Period there was a decrease in skin cancer diagnoses of 68.61% from 3619 to 1136 (p<0.0028). Surprisingly, skin cancer waiting times were also reduced in the COVID Period compared to Before COVID Period (median 8 days and 12 days respectively; p<0.0001). Collectively these data highlight a statistically significant reduction in both skin cancer diagnoses and waiting times during the COVID Period.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for massively-parallel, cost-effective tests monitoring viral spread. Here we present SARSeq, saliva analysis by RNA sequencing, a method to detect SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses on tens of thousands of samples in parallel. SARSeq relies on next generation sequencing of multiple amplicons generated in a multiplexed RT-PCR reaction. Two-dimensional, unique dual indexing, using four indices per sample, enables unambiguous and scalable assignment of reads to individual samples. We calibrate SARSeq on SARS-CoV-2 synthetic RNA, virions, and hundreds of human samples of various types. Robustness and sensitivity were virtually identical to quantitative RT-PCR. Double-blinded benchmarking to gold standard quantitative-RT-PCR performed by human diagnostics laboratories confirms this high sensitivity. SARSeq can be used to detect Influenza A and B viruses and human rhinovirus in parallel, and can be expanded for detection of other pathogens. Thus, SARSeq is ideally suited for differential diagnostic of infections during a pandemic.
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