Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Different Types of Clinical Specimens

Abstract

An epidemic of respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in China and has spread to other countries.¹ Real-time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) of nasopharyngeal swabs typically has been used to confirm the clinical diagnosis.² However, whether the virus can be detected in specimens from other sites, and therefore potentially transmitted in other ways than by respiratory droplets, is unknown.