Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2021 Mar 3;14(3):e241087.
doi: 10.1136/bcr-2020-241087.

Persistent positivity of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in asymptomatic healthcare worker: infective virion or inactive nucleic acid?

Lokesh Tiwari  1 , Prakriti Gupta  2 , Chandra Mani Singh  3 , Prabhat Kumar Singh  4
Affiliations
Case Reports

Persistent positivity of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in asymptomatic healthcare worker: infective virion or inactive nucleic acid?

Lokesh Tiwari et al. BMJ Case Rep. .

Abstract

Asymptomatic individuals positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA constitute a significant proportion of the infected population and play a role in the transmission of the virus. We describe a healthcare worker who presented with fever and malaise and was diagnosed with mild COVID-19. The symptoms resolved within 4 days but there was persistent positivity of viral RNA in the upper respiratory tract for more than 58 days, which is the longest reported duration of persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in a healthcare worker. In this case report, we discuss clinical and administrative issues such as the role of asymptomatic cases in the transmission of the virus to patients and coworkers as an occupational hazard, interpretation of persistent positivity of nucleic acid test, duration of isolation and return-to-work guidelines pertinent to researchers and global health policymakers.

Keywords: COVID-19; global health; healthcare improvement and patient safety; infectious diseases.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cycle threshold (Ct) values for N gene of SARS-CoV-2 on reverse transcription (RT)-PCR test.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO . Who coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. Available: https://covid19.who.int/ [Accessed 28 No 2020].
    1. Tiwari L, Shekhar S, Bansal A, et al. . COVID-19 associated arterial ischaemic stroke and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children: a case report. Lancet Child Adolesc Health 2021;5:88–90. 10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30314-X - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. The Lancet COVID-19: protecting health-care workers. The Lancet 2020;395:922. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30644-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Watson J, Whiting PF, Brush JE. Interpreting a covid-19 test result. BMJ 2020;369:m1808. 10.1136/bmj.m1808 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kucirka LM, Lauer SA, Laeyendecker O, et al. . Variation in false-negative rate of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction-based SARS-CoV-2 tests by time since exposure. Ann Intern Med 2020;173:262–7. 10.7326/M20-1495 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types