On the trail of the novel coronavirus at the start of the pandemic in the Lazio region: a retrospective research of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swabs.

Giuseppe Sberna; Eleonora Lalle; Licia Bordi; Emanuele Nicastri; Giuseppe Ippolito; Alessandra Amendola; Maria Capobianchi

doi:10.22541/au.170665804.49146522/v1

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On the trail of the novel coronavirus at the start of the pandemic in the Lazio region: a retrospective research of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swabs.

Giuseppe Sberna,
Eleonora Lalle,
Licia Bordi,
Emanuele Nicastri,
Giuseppe Ippolito,
Alessandra Amendola,
Maria Capobianchi

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected in 219 nasal/oro-pharyngeal swabs, analyzed for respiratory disease diagnosis at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases “Lazzaro Spallanzani”, from November 2019 to January 2020; these results suggest lack of unrecognized SARS-CoV-2 circulation before the identification of the first two cases in Italy.