Feasibility and utility of rapid antigen testing for COVID-19 in a university residence: a cross sectional study

Importance Understanding feasibility of rapid testing in congregate living setting provides critical data to reduce the risk of outbreaks in these settings. Objective Use rapid antigen screening to detect SARS-CoV-2 in an asymptomatic group of university students and staff. Design Cross-sectional Setting University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Participants Students and staff living or working in congregate housing. Intervention Health care professional administered rapid antigen test Main Outcomes and measures Use of BD Veritor rapid antigen testing and asymptomatic participants’ experiences with rapid testing Results A total of 3536 BD Veritor tests were completed in 1141 unique individuals. One third of participants completed between two to four tests and 21% were screened five or more times. The mean number of tests completed per person was three. The mean length of time between those who had more than one test was seven days. There were eight false positives and 25 PCR confirmed COVID-19 positive individuals identified through this work. All individuals reported having no symptoms that they attributed to COVID-19. Almost all (n=22, 88%) COVID-19 positive cases were found in male participants. A total of 86 additional students from multiple different student residences (n=9) were asked to self-isolate while they waited for their COVID-19 diagnostic test results. An average of seven additional students positive for COVID-19 living in congregate housing were identified through contact tracing by finding one positive case. Conclusions and relevance Rapid testing is a relatively inexpensive and operationally easy method of identifying asymptomatic individuals with COVID-19. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding related to this work. The rapid antigen tests were made available by the Health Canada Safe Restart Agreement Contribution Program Secretariat (testing, contact tracing and data management). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: UBC Clinical Research Ethics Board [H21-00618] All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes De-identified data are available upon request, after peer reviewed publication.