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. 2021 Oct;49(5):1029-1032.
doi: 10.1007/s15010-021-01611-y. Epub 2021 Apr 23.

Virological COVID-19 surveillance in Bavaria, Germany suggests no SARS-CoV-2 spread prior to the first German case in January 2020

Ute Eberle #  1 , Susanne Heinzinger #  2 , Regina Konrad  1 , Clara Wimmer  1 , Bernhard Liebl  3   4 , Katharina Katz  5 , Nikolaus Ackermann #  1 , Andreas Sing #  6   7   8 ; Bavarian SARS-CoV-Public Health Laboratory and Epidemiology Team
Collaborators, Affiliations

Virological COVID-19 surveillance in Bavaria, Germany suggests no SARS-CoV-2 spread prior to the first German case in January 2020

Ute Eberle et al. Infection. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

The Bavarian Influenza Sentinel (BIS) monitors the annual influenza season by combining virological and epidemiological data. The 2019/2020 influenza season overlapped with the beginning COVID-19 pandemic thus allowing to investigate whether there was an unnoticed spread of SARS-CoV-2 among outpatients with acute respiratory infections in the community prior to the first COVID-19 cluster in Bavaria. Therefore, we retrospectively analysed oropharyngeal swabs obtained in BIS between calendar week (CW) 39 in 2019 and CW 14 in 2020 for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-PCR. 610 of all 1376 BIS swabs-contained sufficient material to test for SARS-CoV-2, among them 260 oropharyngeal swabs which were collected prior to the first notified German COVID-19 case in CW 04/2020. In none of these swabs SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected suggesting no SARS-CoV-2 spread prior to late January 2020 in Bavaria.

Keywords: COVID-19; Influenza; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2; Surveillance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of samples analysed for SARS-CoV-2 by calendar week in the BIS 2019/2020 season. Grey bar: negative swabs, red star: first notified German COVID-19 case on 27.01.2020
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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