Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

April 21, 2020

Positive result of Sars-Cov-2 in faeces and sputum from discharged patient with COVID-19 in Yiwu, China

Category:

Topic:

  • Follow-up testing of 13 discharged COVID-19 patients revealed 2 patients continuously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 even though sputum was negative, and 4 patients had positive sputum samples 5-14 days after discharge.  
  • Under present discharge criteria, the high presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA indicates potential infectivity. The authors recommend adding a negative result from fecal testing to discharge criteria, and strengthening of follow-up procedures with discharged patients.

Li et al. (April 20, 2020). Positive result of Sars-Cov-2 in faeces and sputum from discharged patient with COVID-19 in Yiwu, China. J Med Virol. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25905