Persistence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Omicron Variant in Children and Utility of Rapid Antigen Testing as an Indicator of Culturable Virus

Abstract

We screened 65 longitudinally-collected nasal swab samples from 31 children aged 0-16 years who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 omicron BA.1. By day 7 after onset of symptoms 48% of children remained positive by rapid antigen test. In a sample subset we found 100% correlation between antigen test results and virus culture.

A retrospective study suggests 55 days of persistence of SARS-CoV-2 during the first wave of the pandemic in Santiago de Chile

“…As of 2023, the Omicron variant is predominant in Chile and globally. Notably, viral persistence of up to 14 days post Omicron infection has been observed in US children, with positive viral cultures [ 54 ].…”