Three Cases of COVID-19 with Persistently Positive Results of the PCR Test for Over 4 Weeks

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2 The clinical spectrum of COVID-19 varies from asymptomatic infection to severe pneumonia The COVID-19 epidemic started at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China, and the disease has now spread to the entire world The rapid spread of the infection worldwide led the WHO to declare the outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020 Herein, we report three patients with COVID-19 admitted to Atsugi City Hospital, who contracted the infection on the cruise ship, Diamond Princess, which was one of the early sites of outbreak of COVID-19 The three patients had different backgrounds, including age, sex and underlying disease profile, and each had a different clinical course However, all three tested persistently positive by the PCR test for more than 4 weeks, which is longer than the average reported period of positivity In this report, we discuss the interpretation of persistently positive results of PCR for SARS-CoV-19, the appropriate instructions for these patients, and the optimal timing of discharge home of these patients, considering the available medical resources