Data file for "COVID-19 diagnosis within five days of symptoms onset among healthcare workers in Malawi; Non-randomized control trial of self-testing using Ag-RDTs"

The primary outcome compared by arm the harmonic mean number of early COVID‑19 positive diagnoses among HCWs. Analysis was by intention-to-treat using cluster-level summaries and t-test, with adjustment for imbalance. Participation was 99.8% among eligible HCWs across all facilities (1081/1083).

Of the 1081 participating, 612 (56.6%) and 469 (43.4%) were in SOC and C19ST arm, respectively. Mean age was 35.5y (sd: 9.3); 183/612 (29.9%) in SOC were male, compared to 166/469 (35.3%) in C19ST; overall prior vaccination was 80.0% with no difference between SOC, (81.5%) and C19ST (78.0%). Follow-up at exit (12 weeks) was high (SOC: [94%]; C19ST: [87.6%]) and a harmonic mean of 1 and 4 HCWs had early COVID‑19 diagnosis in SOC and C19ST arms, respectively.

COVID‑19 self-testing using Ag-RDTs provided a safe, quick, and reliable model for identifying early-onset symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID‑19 positive HCW. Self-testing was feasible to integrate for routine screening among HCW potentially reducing disruption to health services. This model has potential for wide scale up programmatically especially in resource-constrained settings.