The global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a worldwide shortage of viral transport media and raised questions about specimen stability. The objective of this study was to determine the stability of SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA in specimen transport media under various storage conditions. Transport medium tested included: VCM, UTM®-RT, ESwab™, M4 and saline (0.9% NaCl). Specimen types tested included Nasopharyngeal/Oropharyngeal (NP/OP) swabs in the above transport media, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and Sputum. A high-titer SARS-CoV-2 remnant patient specimen was spiked into pooled SARS-CoV-2 RNA-negative specimen remnants for the various media types. Aliquots of samples were stored at 18°C to 25°C, 2°C to 8°C and -10°C to -30°C and then tested at time points up to 14 days. Specimens consistently yielded amplifiable RNA with mean Ct differences of <3 over the various conditions assayed, thus supporting the use and transport of alternative collection media and specimen types under a variety of temperature storage conditions.
NO Data! |
---|