SARS-CoV-2 Screening Test for Japanese Returnees From Wuhan, China, January 2020

Satoshi Kutsuna; Tadaki Suzuki; Kayoko Hayakawa; Shinya Tsuzuki; Yusuke Asai; Tetsuya Suzuki; Satoshi Ide; Keiji Nakamura; Yuki Moriyama; Noriko Kinoshita; Naoto Hosokawa; Ryosuke Osawa; Ryosuke Yamamuro; Yutaro Akiyama; Yusuke Miyazato; Hidetoshi Nomoto; Takato Nakamoto; Masayuki Ota; Sho Saito; Masahiro Ishikane; Shinichiro Morioka; Kei Yamamoto; Mugen Ujiie; Mari Terada; Fukumi Nakamura-Uchiyama; Toshinori Sahara; Masahiro Sano; Akifumi Imamura; Noritaka Sekiya; Kazuaki Fukushima; Akihiko Kawana; Yuji Fujikura; Tomoya Sano; Ryohei Suematsu; Naoya Sakamoto; Kaoru Nagata; Tomoyuki Kato; Harutaka Katano; Takaji Wakita; Haruhito Sugiyama; Norihiro Kokudo; Norio Ohmagari

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofaa243

SARS-CoV-2 Screening Test for Japanese Returnees From Wuhan, China, January 2020

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Jun 20;7(7):ofaa243. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa243. eCollection 2020 Jul.

Authors

Satoshi Kutsuna¹, Tadaki Suzuki², Kayoko Hayakawa¹, Shinya Tsuzuki³, Yusuke Asai³, Tetsuya Suzuki¹, Satoshi Ide¹, Keiji Nakamura¹, Yuki Moriyama¹, Noriko Kinoshita¹, Naoto Hosokawa⁴, Ryosuke Osawa⁴, Ryosuke Yamamuro⁴, Yutaro Akiyama¹, Yusuke Miyazato¹, Hidetoshi Nomoto¹, Takato Nakamoto¹, Masayuki Ota¹, Sho Saito¹, Masahiro Ishikane¹, Shinichiro Morioka¹, Kei Yamamoto¹, Mugen Ujiie¹, Mari Terada¹, Fukumi Nakamura-Uchiyama⁵, Toshinori Sahara⁵, Masahiro Sano⁶, Akifumi Imamura⁷, Noritaka Sekiya⁸, Kazuaki Fukushima⁷, Akihiko Kawana⁹, Yuji Fujikura⁹, Tomoya Sano⁹, Ryohei Suematsu⁹, Naoya Sakamoto¹⁰, Kaoru Nagata¹¹, Tomoyuki Kato¹¹, Harutaka Katano², Takaji Wakita², Haruhito Sugiyama¹², Norihiro Kokudo¹², Norio Ohmagari¹

Affiliations

¹ Disease Control and Prevention Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
² COVID-19 NIID Evacuation Flight Laboratory Testing Team (NEFLATT), National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
³ AMR Clinical Reference Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Department of Infectious Disease, Kameda Medical Center, Kamogawa City, Chiba, Japan.
⁵ Department of Infectious Diseases, Ebara Hospital, Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Hospitals Corporation, Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
⁶ Department of Infectious Diseases, Toshima Hospital, Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Hospitals Corporation, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
⁷ Department of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center Komagome Hospital, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
⁸ Department of Infection Prevention and Control, Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center Komagome Hospital, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
⁹ Division of Infectious Diseases and Respiratory Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa City, Saitama, Japan.
¹⁰ Department of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo Metropolitan Bokutoh General Hospital, Sumida-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
¹¹ Japanese Red Cross Musashino Hospital, Musashino City, Tokyo, Japan.
¹² National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was found to be the causative microorganism of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which started to spread in Wuhan, China. This study was to evaluate the effectiveness of questionnaire, symptoms-based screening, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening of returnees from COVID-19-endemic areas on a chartered flight, to examine the proportion of infected persons and the proportion of asymptomatic persons among infected persons who returned from Wuhan.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was done in 7 tertiary medical institutions in Japan. A total of 566 Japanese who returned from Wuhan participated in the study.

Results: Overall, 11 of the 566 passengers had a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR result for pharyngeal swabs and 6 were asymptomatic. Only fever differed between SARS-CoV-2-positive and -negative individuals (P < .043). Six of the 11 PCR-positive individuals were asymptomatic; 4 remained positive on day 10, and 1 asymptomatic person tested positive up to day 27. Two of the 11 were negative on the first PCR test and positive on the second.

Conclusions: Our results will be important insights on screening returnees from locked-down cities, as well as providing important data on the proportion of asymptomatic individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2. A 13-day observation period and a second round of PCR may be effective to screen patients, including asymptomatic infections.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Wuhan; lockdown; returnees.