One in five mild COVID-19 cases may be asymptomatic

And onsite GP accreditation visits will resume from 26 October for practices that fall into the low-risk category.

Welcome to The Medical Republic‘s COVID Catch-Up.

It’s the day’s COVID-19 news in one convenient post. Email bianca@biancanogrady.com with any tips, comments or feedback.

23 September

• One in five people with mild COVID-19 are asymptomatic but have same viral loads as symptomatic.
• Onsite GP accreditation assessments to resume for low-risk practices.
• Wastewater analysis suggests Adelaideans weren’t hitting the booze during lockdown.
• NSW Health calls for more people to get tested for COVID-19 as test numbers drop.
• The latest confirmed COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia.

• Around one in five people with mild COVID-19 are completely asymptomatic but still have similar viral loads to individuals with symptoms, research suggests.
  A prospective cohort study, published in Thorax, followed 213 individuals in South Korea who tested positive to SARS-CoV-2 but had only mild symptoms, and were subsequently admitted to dedicated care facilities for isolation and monitoring.
  During this observation period, 19% of the individuals remained asymptomatic. In follow-up RT-PCR testing of 172 of the total group, similar numbers of asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals were found to still test positive for the virus, and the viral count values were similar between symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals.
  “Our data thus support the general public use of face masks as well as broadening the scope of SARS-CoV-2 testing to include asymptomatic persons in certain high-risk settings until such time as further data become available regarding the duration and transmissibility of viable virus shedding from asymptomatic individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection to support these recommendations,” the authors wrote.
• Onsite assessments for general practice accreditation will resume from 26 October, after having been suspended during the pandemic.
  The Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Healthcare will add an extra 12 months on all general practice accreditation certificates to give them extra lead time to plan and prepare for the assessment. But only practices that are judged to be in a low-risk setting for COVID-19 – not areas with local disease clusters or in states or regions in lockdown – will be assessed at this stage.
  Those practices in higher-risk areas will hold on to their current accreditation status for the time being.
  The Commission is also prioritising practices that are in the remediation period after their initial assessment, those that were previously scheduled for assessments in March this year but have not been assessed, those that have completed the Attestation Statement, those granted an extension with special conditions, and those registered for the PIP for more than 12 months.
• Analysis of wastewater in Adelaide during the COVID-19 lockdown suggests Adelaideans were drinking a lot less alcohol than usual, particularly on weekends.
  Writing in Addiction, the authors of the study noted that there is conflicting evidence on how catastrophic events influence alcohol consumption in a population, but Australian survey data suggested Australians were buying and consuming more alcohol during the early stages of the pandemic.
  But this study of the levels of alcohol metabolite ethyl sulfate in samples taken for seven consecutive days during April 2020, compared to April 2016-2019, found April this year had the lowest levels of alcohol consumption compared to the previous four years, including a 12% drop in average alcohol consumption on weekends.
  “What is most interesting is not only did overall weekly consumption decrease, but the weekend spike that is conventional for alcohol consumption was also flatter than usual,” the authors wrote. They suggested that Adelaideans were heeding the call to stay home and self-isolate, so there was less social drinking happening.
• NSW Health is appealing to residents to get tested for COVID-19 even if they have the mildest of respiratory symptoms, after two consecutive days with fewer than 8000 tests performed.
  “While there were no locally acquired cases recorded in the past 48 hours, the virus is likely still circulating and it is imperative anyone displaying mild symptoms get tested immediately and not delay their test,” the department said in a statement. The state has now had two consecutive days with no new cases from community transmission.
  They asked anyone with a runny nose, scratchy throat, cough, fever or other symptoms to come forward for the free testing. The goal is to achieve around 20,000 tests per day, particularly in South Western Sydney and especially ahead of school holidays, which start next week.
• Here are the latest confirmed COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia to 9pm Tuesday:
  National – 26,942, with 854 deaths
  ACT – 113 (0)
  NSW – 4206 (2)
  NT – 33 (0)
  QLD – 1153 (0)
  SA – 466 (0)
  TAS – 230 (0)
  VIC – 20,076 (28)
  WA – 665 (3)