Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of early COVID-19 cases, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Boddington, Nicola L.; Charlett, André; Elgohari, Suzanne; Byers, Chloe; Coughlan, Laura; Vilaplana, Tatiana Garcia; Whillock, Rosie; Sinnathamby, Mary; Panagiotopoulos, Nikolaos; Letley, Louise; MacDonald, Pauline; Vivancos, Roberto; Edeghere, Obaghe; Shingleton, Joseph; Bennett, Emma; Cottrell, Simon; McMenamin, Jim; Zambon, Maria; Ramsay, Mary; Dabrera, Gavin; Saliba, Vanessa

doi:10.2471/blt.20.265603

Cited by 28 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK) (late January to early April 2020), we received 754 URT samples from 425 symptomatic cases that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR targeting the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene [1] and that had a clear record of the dates of symptom onset and sample collection. These samples were collected as part of the First Few 100 surveillance study described in Boddington et al [2]. Using RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values as a semiquantitative measure of SARS-CoV-2 viral load identified that the level of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the URT was greatest around symptom onset, steadily decreased during the first 10 days after illness onset and then plateaued ( Figure 1).…”

Section: Kinetics Of Viral Rna Detection From the Respiratory Tractmentioning

confidence: 99%

Duration of infectiousness and correlation with RT-PCR cycle threshold values in cases of COVID-19, England, January to May 2020

et al. 2020

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 viral load in the upper respiratory tract peaks around symptom onset and infectious virus persists for 10 days in mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (n = 324 samples analysed). RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values correlate strongly with cultivable virus. Probability of culturing virus declines to 8% in samples with Ct > 35 and to 6% 10 days after onset; it is similar in asymptomatic and symptomatic persons. Asymptomatic persons represent a source of transmissible virus.

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Section: Kinetics Of Viral Rna Detection From the Respiratory Tractmentioning

confidence: 99%

Duration of infectiousness and correlation with RT-PCR cycle threshold values in cases of COVID-19, England, January to May 2020

et al. 2020

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“…Case definitions for SARS-CoV-2 testing varied over the course of the first peak of the pandemic (table 1). 9 Throughout this period, confirmed cases and their close contacts were isolated to prevent transmission into the community. During the delayed phase of outbreak control, emphasis was shifted to testing those presenting to hospital with suspected COVID-19 with the aim of rapidly diagnosing cases and protecting those who were SARS-CoV-2 negative.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 in children: analysis of the first pandemic peak in England

et al. 2020

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ObjectivesTo assess disease trends, testing practices, community surveillance, case-fatality and excess deaths in children as compared with adults during the first pandemic peak in England.SettingEngland.ParticipantsChildren with COVID-19 between January and May 2020.Main outcome measuresTrends in confirmed COVID-19 cases, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positivity rates in children compared with adults; community prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in children with acute respiratory infection (ARI) compared with adults, case-fatality rate in children with confirmed COVID-19 and excess childhood deaths compared with the previous 5 years.ResultsChildren represented 1.1% (1,408/129,704) of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases between 16 January 2020 and 3 May 2020. In total, 540 305 people were tested for SARS-COV-2 and 129,704 (24.0%) were positive. In children aged <16 years, 35,200 tests were performed and 1408 (4.0%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2, compared to 19.1%–34.9% adults. Childhood cases increased from mid-March and peaked on 11 April before declining. Among 2,961 individuals presenting with ARI in primary care, 351 were children and 10 (2.8%) were positive compared with 9.3%–45.5% in adults. Eight children died and four (case-fatality rate, 0.3%; 95% CI 0.07% to 0.7%) were due to COVID-19. We found no evidence of excess mortality in children.ConclusionsChildren accounted for a very small proportion of confirmed cases despite the large numbers of children tested. SARS-CoV-2 positivity was low even in children with ARI. Our findings provide further evidence against the role of children in infection and transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

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“…These include BNF codes from OpenPrescribing.net, published codelists for asthma, [24][25][26] immunosuppression, [27][28][29] psoriasis, 30 SLE, 31 RA 32,33 and cancer, 34,35 and Read Code 2 lists designed specifically to describe groups at increased risk of influenza infection. 36 Read Code 2 lists were added to with SNOMED codes and cross-checked against NHS QOF registers, then translated into CTV3 with manual curation. Decisions on every code list were documented and final lists reviewed by at least two authors.…”

Section: Covariatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

OpenSAFELY: factors associated with COVID-19-related hospital death in the linked electronic health records of 17 million adult NHS patients

Williamson

Walker

Bhaskaran

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Establishing who is at risk from a novel rapidly arising cause of death, and why, requires a new approach to epidemiological research with very large datasets and timely data. Working on behalf of NHS England we therefore set out to deliver a secure and pseudonymised analytics platform inside the data centre of a major primary care electronic health records vendor establishing coverage across detailed primary care records for a substantial proportion of all patients in England. The following results are preliminary.

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Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of early COVID-19 cases, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Abstract: This paper was submitted to the Bulletin of the World Health Organization and was posted to the COVID-19 open site, according to the protocol for public health emergencies for international concern as described in Vasee Moorthy et al.

Cited by 28 publications

References 24 publications

Duration of infectiousness and correlation with RT-PCR cycle threshold values in cases of COVID-19, England, January to May 2020

Duration of infectiousness and correlation with RT-PCR cycle threshold values in cases of COVID-19, England, January to May 2020

COVID-19 in children: analysis of the first pandemic peak in England

OpenSAFELY: factors associated with COVID-19-related hospital death in the linked electronic health records of 17 million adult NHS patients

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