No COVID symptoms? Why getting tested can slow the spread

It’s hard to imagine that you could have COVID-19 when you feel just fine. But COVID-19 is sneaky that way, taking advantage of asymptomatic carriers so that they unknowingly spread the virus to others. 

At Ohio University, two asymptomatic testing programs are helping to slow that spread: Vault Health for regular testing of all students with a campus presence, and CVS wide net testing to monitor potential outbreaks.

“The younger the person, the higher the chance of having an asymptomatic positive case,” said Gillian Ice, special assistant to the president for public health operations at Ohio University. “This is why an asymptomatic testing program is critical to slowing spread on a college campus.”

The Vault asymptomatic testing program allows the University to broadly monitor whether virus incidence is decreasing or increasing on campus. It also helps to identify and isolate positive individuals, with the goal of reducing spread and identifying potential outbreaks. Faculty and staff who are regularly on campus are encouraged to test regularly as well.

Vault’s saliva-based PCR test is highly accurate, with a sensitivity and specificity rate of more than 99 percent.

Once the Vault testing program identifies a positive individual or individuals, the University may employ wide net testing to curb a potential outbreak. Wide net testing is a practice that involves quickly testing a specific group of individuals who may have had contact with a positive case. Several factors affect whether to initiate wide net testing:

• Contact tracing may indicate that a positive individual has recently been in contact with small or large numbers of other individuals, for example in a classroom or social event
• Communal living arrangements could warrant wide net testing, for example several positive individuals within residential or off-campus housing
• A percentage of individuals infected in a residence hall during a seven-day period, outlined by the University’s Housing Advisory System, could warrant testing some or all of those residents to prevent an outbreak.
• We may notice a concerning cluster associated with a work setting or campus location such as Ping.

“We know once we get a few infections in the residence halls, it can be difficult to bring those numbers down,” Ice said. “We want to identify people quickly so we can isolate those folks, quarantine their close contacts and keep the residence hall safe.”

Whereas our broad asymptomatic testing program utilizes Vault Health’s saliva-based PCR test, which requires 48-72 hours for results, our wide net program is through CVS, using the Abbott ID NOW, rapid molecular, self-administered nasal swab test, with results available in 15 minutes. The Abbot ID NOW test is 95 percent sensitive and 97.9 percent specific.  

“There are pros and cons to each testing program, which is why we use them differently,” Ice said. “Vault’s test is less invasive and more accurate, so for regular testing it’s worth the longer wait time. The rapid test through CVS is slightly less accurate and more invasive, but the result is available quickly, so it’s ideal for helping to identify potential outbreaks.”

Any individual who tests positive through either Vault or CVS testing is instructed to follow isolation instructions and the University’s protocol for positive individuals.

“We get emails and calls from people every day who are in disbelief that they could be carrying the virus, because they have tested positive but feel fine,” Ice said. “This is one of the biggest challenges of this virus: People feeling fine can spread it. This is why we must isolate symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals alike.”

For more information about Ohio University's COVID-19 response, visit www.ohio.edu/coronavirus.