Abstract
Analyses of infection chains have demonstrated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is highly transmissive. However, data on postmortem stability and infectivity are lacking. Our finding of nasopharyngeal viral RNA stability in 79 corpses showed no time-dependent decrease. Maintained infectivity is supported by virus isolation up to 35 hours postmortem.
Highlights
Analyses of infection chains have demonstrated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is highly transmissive
Detailed analyses of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission have shown the virus to be highly transmissible through droplet and contact-transmitted viral spreading; reproduction indices were 2.2–3.6 [1]
Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, case-fatality rates of up to 9.26% occur in areas hard-struck by SARS-CoV-2 [2]
Summary
Analyses of infection chains have demonstrated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is highly transmissive. To determine the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 transmission through deceased persons, we conducted a study of postmortem viral RNA stability. To confirm the initial diagnosis and quantify the viral load in the corpses, nasopharyngeal swab samples (ESwab; Copan, https://products.copangroup.com) were taken at patient admission to the Department of Legal Medicine (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf).
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