Analyses of infection chains have demonstrated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is highly transmissive. However, data on postmortem stability and infectivity are lacking. Our finding of nasopharyngeal viral RNA stability in 79 corpses showed no time-dependent decrease. Maintained infectivity is supported by virus isolation up to 35 hours postmortem.
Keywords: 2019 novel coronavirus disease; COVID-19; RNA stability; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; coronavirus disease; infectivity; postmortem; respiratory infections; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; viruses; zoonoses.