SARS-CoV-2 RNA can persist in blood, tissue, may play role in long COVID --research

SARS-CoV-2 RNA can persist in blood, tissue, may play role in long COVID, research suggests The probability of having persistent viral fragments was about double in hospitalized participants and in those who reported being very ill but weren't hospitalized. CIDRAP

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In two studies, the researchers found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the blood for up to 14 months post-infection and for more than 2 years in connective-tissue samples from 171 COVID-19 survivors without evidence of reinfection. The team obtained the samples from UCSF's Long COVID Tissue Bank, which houses samples donated by patients with and without long COVID.

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