ArticlePloS one2025
High-frequency PCR-testing as a powerful approach for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in the field of critical infrastructure: A longitudinal, retrospective study in a German tertiary care hospital.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A high number of SARS-CoV-2 infections are mild, often even asymptomatic. Because of high specificity and sensitivity, RT-PCR is considered the gold-standard for COVID-19 testing. The technology played a key role in detecting sources of infection at an early stage and therefore preventing larger outbreaks. This was especially important in case of critical infrastructure, such as hospitals. Until now, comprehensive studies concerning the impact of high-frequency PCR-testing in German tertiary care hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic are lacking. We therefore analyzed about 285.000 oral swab probes of 3.421 healthcare-workers concerning SARS-CoV-2 RNA positivity between November 2020 and February 2023. Our data show that frequent PCR-testing is a useful tool concerning SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Due to the longitudinal character of the study, we were able to observe SARS-CoV-2 variant-specific differences. For example, the omicron-variant led to high reinfection-rates as well as lower Ct-values. Nevertheless, reinfection rates in our hospital are much lower compared to other analyzed healthcare-worker cohorts described in the literature, which is again attributable to the frequent testing-regime implemented in the early phase of the pandemic. Our data further reveal a longer infection-duration in elderly compared to younger individuals.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.