“Strict precautions to prevent transmission should be taken for patients who are in hospital or self-quarantined if their faecal samples test positive.”
The Lancet has published a study on positive SARS-CoV-2 (or ‘coronavirus 2’) which causes the COVID-19 syndrome. Positive SARS-CoV-2 respiratory swabs were found to be positive for an average of 15.4 days. Fecal samples, however, tested positive for the virus for a mean of 27.9 days. Positive fecal samples were shown to have a delayed onset compared to respiratory swabs. Facal samples may test positive for up to 33 days after respiratory swabs have a negative result. Click here to see the graph of results.
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Wu, Yongjian; Guo, Cheng; Tang, Lantian; Hong, Zhongsi; Zhou, Jianhui; Dong, Xin. “Prolonged presence of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in faecal samples”, The Lancet, March 19, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(20)30083-2.
