Stability issues of RT‐PCR testing of SARS‐CoV‐2 for hospitalized patients clinically diagnosed with COVID‐19

Abstract

In this study, we collected a total of 610 hospitalized patients from Wuhan between Feb 2, 2020, and Feb 17, 2020. We reported a potentially high false negtive rate of RT‐PCR testing for SARS‐CoV‐2 in the 610 hospitalized patients clinically diagnosed with COVID‐19 during the 2019 outbreak. We also found that the RT‐PCR results from several tests at different points were variable from the same patients during the course of diagnosis and treatment of these patients. Our results indicate that in addition to the emphasis on RT‐PCR testing, clinical indicators such as CT images should also be used not only for diagnosis and treatment but also for isolation, recovery/discharge and transferring for hospitalized patients clinically diagnosed with COVID‐19 during the current epidemic. These results suggested the urgent needs for standard of procedures(SOP) of sampling from different anatomic sites, sample transportation, optimization of RT‐PCR, serology diagnosis/screening for SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, and distinct diagnosis from other respiratory diseases such as fluenza infections as well.