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The duration of infectiousness of individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2
Open accessAbstract
Objectives To summarise the evidence on the duration of infectiousness of individuals in whom SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid is detected.Methods A rapid review was undertaken in PubMed, Europe PubMed Central and EMBASE from 1 January 2020 to 26 August 2020.Results We identified 15 relevant studies, including 13 virus culture and 2 contact tracing studies. For 5 virus culture studies, the last day on which SARS-CoV-2 was isolated occurred within 10 days of symptom onset. For another 5 studies, SARS-CoV-2 was isolated beyond day 10 for approximately 3% of included patients. The remaining 3 virus culture studies included patients with severe or critical disease; SARS-CoV-2 was isolated up to day 32 in one study. Two studies identified immunocompromised patients from whom SARS-CoV-2 was isolated for up to 20 days. Both contact tracing studies, when close contacts were first exposed greater than 5 days after symptom onset in the index case, found no evidence of laboratory-confirmed onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Conclusion COVID-19 patients with mild-to-moderate illness are highly unlikely to be infectious beyond 10 days of symptoms. However, evidence from a limited number of studies indicates that patients with severe-to-critical illness or who are immunocompromised, may shed infectious virus for longer.
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Metadata
- Authors
- Walsh, K. A., Spillane, S., Comber, L., Cardwell, K., Harrington, P., Connell, J., Teljeur, C., Broderick, N., de Gascun, C. F., Smith, S. M., Ryan, M., & O'Neill, M.
- Affiliations
- Health Information and Quality Authority (IE)
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (IE)
- University College Dublin (IE)
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Walsh, Kieran A.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Infection
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 81
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 847-856
- ISSN
- 0163-4453 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7547320
- OpenAlex
- W3092430350
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 54 · 2020: 6
- FWCI
- 1.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Infection (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Lenus, The Irish Health Repository (Dr Steevens Hospital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Health Research Board
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Keywords
- SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic, infectious period, viral shedding, contact tracing, viral culture, immunocompromised patients, severe COVID-19, symptom onset, transmission
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Humans, Patient Isolation, RNA, Viral, Severity of Illness Index, Time Factors, Contact Tracing, Disease Transmission, Infectious, Viral Load, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
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