One in 10 people may have clinical levels of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) after 10 day quarantine period, a study has highlighted.
Though conventional PCR tests can tell if someone has recently had the virus, they cannot detect whether it is still active, but a new study has found that one in 10 people might have clinically relevant levels of potentially infectious SARS-CoV-2 past the 10 day quarantine period.
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The study has been published in the ‘International Journal of Infectious Diseases’ and was led by the University of Exeter and funded by Animal Free Research UK.
It used a newly adapted test that can detect whether the virus was potentially still active and was applied to samples from 176 people in Exeter who had tested positive on standard PCR tests.
The study found that 13 per cent of people still exhibited clinically-relevant levels of virus after 10 days, meaning they could potentially still be infectious and some people retained these levels for up to 68 days with authors believing that this new test should be applied in settings where people are vulnerable, to stop the spread of COVID-19.
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Professor Lorna Harries, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said while this is a relatively small study “our results suggest that potentially active virus may sometimes persist beyond a 10 day period, and could pose a l risk of onward transmission.”
Animal Free Research UK CEO Carla Owen said that the University of Exeter team’s discovery is exciting and potentially very important.
