Introduction
The first cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were reported in
December 2019, in Wuhan, China 1. After a rapid spread
worldwide, the disease was declared a pandemic in March 2020. As of
August 10, 2020, there have been over 19 million confirmed cases of
COVID-19, including 728,013 deaths 2. In France, the
first case of COVID-19 was identified in Bichat Claude Bernard
university hospital, in Paris, on January 24, 2020, concomitant with the
end of the annual influenza epidemic 3. As in most
countries struck by the virus, the first wave of the pandemic was
controlled in France due to a national lockdown that began on March 16,
2020. However, new waves are striking again in several countries with
initially controlled outbreaks, and the pandemic is still accelerating
worldwide 4.
The virus is thus highly likely to continue to circulate for a prolonged
period. In such a scenario, the SARS-CoV-2 virus will likely
co-circulate with other respiratory viruses (RVs) during the next fall
and winter in the northern hemisphere or during the ongoing months in
the southern hemisphere 5. Such co-circulation was
briefly observed in Northern America and Europe at the beginning of the
SARS-CoV-2 local outbreaks 6,7. As patients presenting
with influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) could be infected by any RV,
including SARS-CoV-2, this will raise an additional challenge for
patients’ diagnosis and isolation in an emergency department (ED). The
looming threat of concurrent SARS-CoV-2 and other RV epidemics is an
increasing concern for both physicians and health policies8. Being able to quickly identify and isolate patients
who are highly suspected of having COVID-19 is indeed a cornerstone of
preventing nosocomial transmission of this new and deadly infection in
crowded EDs and other units.
We took advantage of an ongoing prospective study assessing the impact
of point-of-care testing with multiplex PCR in our ED to extend the
study. We aimed to identify clinical and biological characteristics that
help to differentiate COVID-19 from other respiratory viral infections.