Prevalence of persistent SARS-CoV-2 in a large community surveillance study

Abstract Persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections may act as viral reservoirs that could seed future outbreaks 1–5 , give rise to highly divergent lineages 6–8 and contribute to cases with post-acute COVID-19 sequelae (long COVID) 9,10 . However, the population prevalence of persistent infections, their viral load kinetics and evolutionary dynamics over the course of infections remain largely unknown. Here, using viral sequence data collected as part of a national infection survey, we identified 381 individuals with SARS-CoV-2 RNA at high titre persisting for at least 30 days, of which 54 had viral RNA persisting at least 60 days. We refer to these as ‘persistent infections’ as available evidence suggests that they…

• LK
  Li Ka Shing Foundation
• WT
  Wellcome Trust

  Awards: 203141/Z/16/Z, /Z/15/Z, 203141, NIHR200915, 107652/Z/15/Z
• NI
  National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit

  Awards: MC_PC_19027, NIHR200915
• NI
  National Institute for Health and Care Research

  Awards: 203141/Z/16/Z, MC_PC_19027, NIHR200915
• DO
  Department of Health and Social Care

  Award: COVID-19 Genomics Programme
• UO
  University of Oxford

  Award: NIHR200915
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Awards: MC_PC_19027, MR/N029399/1, 203141/Z/16/Z, COVID-19
• NO
  NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre

  Award: NIHR200915