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The novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), is responsible for a worldwide pandemic. While the medical community understands the mode of viral transmission, less is known about how long viral shedding occurs once viral symptoms have resolved. Our objective was to determine how long the SARS‐CoV‐2 remains detectable following self‐reporting of viral symptom resolution.

This study was approved by the University of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board. A cohort of patients who were previously SARS‐CoV‐2 positive less than 28 days after self‐reported symptom resolution were retested for proof of viral recovery by nasal swab reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA.

A total of 152 potential participants were screened, of which 5 declined, 54 were ineligible, and 93 were recruited; 86 of 93 …