Participating practices will provide Convalescent Serology blood samples from consenting patients across all age groups who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 by PCR testing at the following time-points after symptom onset:
- 3-6 weeks (sample up to 9 weeks)
- 12 weeks (sample up to 16 weeks)
- 20 weeks (sample up to 7 months)
- New! 9 months (sample up to 10.5 months)
- New! 12 months (sample as close to 12 months as possible)
It is anticipated that not all patients will be able to submit all samples. However, a minimum of 2 samples per patient will be required. Samples should be collected following standard infection control / PPE procedures that are in place at that practice.
Eligibility
- Patients who have verbally consented to be part of the study
- Patients who have received a diagnosis of COVID-19 by PCR testing
- Patients for whom information on date of symptom onset, date of PCR swab, or whether they were admitted to hospital is available
Consent
Patients should be provided with the Patient Information Sheet (physically or in an electronic format) and given the opportunity to read and ask questions. They should be able to understand that for the study they will be asked to contribute sequential blood samples, and answer a short questionnaire (the lab form) regarding their symptom onset and disease severity. Only verbal consent is required from the patient, parent or guardian (for any minors). Consent can be withdrawn at any stage and participants are not required to give a reason for withdrawal. Withdrawn participants should be sought to be replaced with a patient from the same age and disease severity category.
Targets
Participants will be categorised according to age and disease severity (as defined by requiring an overnight hospital stay)
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Mild disease severity
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Moderate or severe disease severity
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Children aged < 16 years
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50
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0
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Adults aged 16-64 years
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0
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25
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Adults aged >65 years
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50
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25
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Disease severity
- Mild disease (where symptoms were managed in the community and did not require an overnight hospital stay)
- Moderate or severe disease (as defined by requiring hospital admission of at least one night)
As the collection progresses, RCGP RSC will inform the practice of which age group and disease severity to sample from.
Results
Please note, serology results will not be sent back to the practice or patient.
Coding
Coding into the patient's clinical medical record (CMR) is vitally important to the quality of data the Oxford-RCGP RSC can extract, and for practice payments. Please see below for further details.
