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. 2020 Sep;56(3):106100.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.106100. Epub 2020 Jul 16.

No evidence of SARS-CoV-2 circulation before identification of the first Swiss SARS-CoV-2 case

Loïc Lhopitallier  1 , Thomas Brahier  2 , Onya Opota  2 , Andreas Kronenberg  2 , Yolanda Mueller  2 , Olivier Hügli  2 , Katia Jaton  2 , Noémie Boillat-Blanco  2
Affiliations

No evidence of SARS-CoV-2 circulation before identification of the first Swiss SARS-CoV-2 case

Loïc Lhopitallier et al. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

  1. •

    Retrospective RT-PCR was performed for SARS-CoV-2 on frozen nasopharyngeal swabs of patients with lower respiratory tract infections collected in Western Switzerland between November 2019 and March 2020

  2. •

    No case was identified before the first officially diagnosed cases

  3. •

    This suggests that the targeted screening approach was adequate when faced with difficulties in upscaling testing capacity

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