RT-PCR detection of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal and salivary specimens: contribution of alternative collection systems and extraction processes to cope with mass screening. Interpretation of low viral loads

Abstract

Due to massive screening of the persistent coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, supply difficulties emerged for swabs and extraction reagents leading to test alternative choices. Quality sampling may have an impact on the result and a low RNA detection may be difficult to interpret because it does not necessarily mean that infectious particles are present in biological samples. There is a need to understand whether the Ct value information is relevant and informative.

Keywords

• contagiousness
• covid-19
• ct interpretation
• rna
• sars-cov-2
• transport media