SARS-CoV-2 Found in Blood Test on Hospital Admission Can Predict Severe COVID-19

Researchers have found that a blood test on hospital admission showing the presence or absence of SARS-CoV-2 can identify patients at a high risk of severe COVID-19 and admitted patients without the novel coronavirus in their blood have a good chance of rapid recovery.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) and Danderyd Hospital (Danderyd, Sweden) who took blood samples from patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection within three days of admission found that patients with measurable levels of SARS-CoV-2 in their blood were seven times more likely to develop critical symptoms and eight times more likely to die within 28 days.

The researchers analyzed the presence of viral RNA in the blood using a standard hospital technique called PCR on samples taken from a total of 167 patients. More...