Long-term SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding and its temporal association to IgG seropositivity

Abstract

Longitudinal characterization of SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing from COVID-19 patient’s nasopharynx and its juxtaposition with blood-based IgG-seroconversion diagnostic assays is critical to understanding SARS-CoV-2 infection durations. Here, we retrospectively analyze 851 SARS-CoV-2-positive patients with at least two positive PCR tests and find that 99 of these patients remain SARS-CoV-2-positive after 4 weeks from their initial diagnosis date. For the 851-patient cohort, the mean lower bound of viral RNA shedding was 17.3 days (SD: 7.8), and the mean upper bound of viral RNA shedding from 668 patients transitioning to confirmed PCR-negative status was 22.7 days (SD: 11.8). Among 104 patients with an IgG test result, 90 patients were seropositive to date, with mean upper bound of time to seropositivity from initial diagnosis being 37.8 days (95% CI: 34.3–41.3). Our findings from juxtaposing IgG and PCR tests thus reveal that some SARS-CoV-2-positive patients are non-hospitalized and seropositive, yet actively shed viral RNA (14 of 90 patients). This study emphasizes the need for monitoring viral loads and neutralizing antibody titers in long-term non-hospitalized shedders as a means of characterizing the SARS-CoV-2 infection lifecycle.