Introduction
MAY, SARS-COV-2 INFECTION, SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME, CORONAVIRUS
Countries have experienced several waves of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, with considerable health and economic impacts [In many countries, along with nonpharmaceutical control measures, widely available and free screening for SARS-CoV-2 has been offered in communities to reach infected asymptomatic/paucisymptomatic individuals who would otherwise not be tested. Mass screening experiments have been conducted at the city or country level [A possible wide screening strategy for identifying asymptomatic/paucisymptomatic individuals is to systematically offer screening during medical consultations, particularly in emergency departments (EDs). French EDs receive a volume equivalent to one-third of the French population each year [In addition to SARS-CoV-2 screening in EDs for symptomatic patients, screening at the time of hospital admission has been mandatory since mid-2020 in European countries to limit nosocomial transmission after studies showed that a high number of inpatients, up to 50% of new positive cases, were asymptomatic carriers [The objectives of this trial were to offer an intensified screening strategy in 18 EDs in the Paris metropolitan area before the broad vaccine roll-out in May 2021 to evaluate whether this strategy could contribute to a higher detection proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infections during a period covering the third wave caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant.