Epidemiological Significance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Dynamic in Naso-Pharyngeal Swabs.
From 16 March to 15 December 2020, 132,357 naso-pharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs were collected in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo Region, Italy, and tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA by a commercially available molecular assay. A total of 12,880 swabs resulted positive. For 8212 positive patients (4.150 women and 4.062 men) the median age was statistically different between women (median: 49.55 ± 23.9 of SD) and men (median: 48.35 ± 23.5 of SD) while no differences were found in the comparison between the cycle threshold for the N protein-encoding gene (C N) median values and gender. Differences were observed in the C N gene median values of swabs collected from March to September as well as in the pairwise comparison between September and October and between November and December. The C N gene median values observed in specific periods characterizing the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in 2020 were also compared with the incidence of COVID-19 cases; a strong inverse correlation was highlighted (Pearson correlation coefficient = -0.978). Our findings confirm the usefulness of the C N values as an indirect detection parameter to monitor viral loads in the population.
['Calistri|Paolo|P|0000-0001-6004-9373', 'Danzetta|Maria Luisa|ML|0000-0002-2128-0780', 'Amato|Laura|L|', 'Cito|Francesca|F|0000-0002-4982-476X', 'Di Giuseppe|Alessandra|A|', 'Zenobio|Valentina|V|', 'Morelli|Daniela|D|', 'Puglia|Ilaria|I|0000-0002-2334-1153', 'Caporale|Marialuigia|M|', 'Scialabba|Silvia|S|', 'Savini|Giovanni|G|', 'Migliorati|Giacomo|G|', "D'Alterio|Nicola|N|", 'Lorusso|Alessio|A|0000-0001-6156-8212']
SARS-CoV-2 naso-pharyngeal swab Abruzzo cycle threshold COVID-19 viral circulation