The ratio between SARS-CoV-2 RNA viral load and culturable viral titer differs depending on stage of infection

Abstract

Analysis of incident, longitudinal RNA viral loads in saliva and nasal swabs and culturable viral titers in nasal swabs collected twice-daily by a tricenarian male infected with SARS-CoV-2 revealed the ratio between viral load and viral titer can be five orders of magnitude higher during early infection than late infection.