Sensitivity of Nasal and Oropharyngeal Swabs in Diagnosing COVID-19 in Hospitalised Patients

Abstract

In December 2019 details of a novel coronavirus emerged from Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province in China [1]. Just over one month later the World Health Organization declared the ensuing crisis a global pandemic. With an escalating death toll and the introduction of widespread stringent lock-down measures to halt the spread of the virus, the social and economic consequences will be lasting. Worldwide there is therefore an urgent need to expand of our knowledge of the virus and how to best manage it.Coronaviruses are themselves well known, however it is the so called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes the disease, now termed 3]. While our understanding remains incomplete, knowledge of the transmission characteristics of the virus have since evolved. Person-to-person transmission is now well recognized. Like influenza virus, this is believed to be