Duration of Shedding of Culturable Virus in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (BA.1) Infection
Julie Boucau, Caitlin Marino, James Regan, Rockib Uddin, Manish C. Choudhary, James P. Flynn, Geoffrey Chen, Ashley Stuckwisch, Josh Mathews, May Y. Liew, Arshdeep Singh, Taryn Lipiner, Autumn Kittilson, Meghan Melberg, Yijia Li, Rebecca F. Gilbert, Zahra Reynolds, Surabhi Iyer, Grace Chamberlin, Tammy D. Vyas, Marcia B. Goldberg, Jatin M. Vyas, Jonathan Z. Li, Jacob E. Lemieux, Mark J. Siedner, Amy K. Barczak
Abstract
To the Editor: The B.1.1.529 (omicron) variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a shorter incubation period and a higher transmission rate than previous variants. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended shortening the strict isolation period for infected persons in non-health care settings from 10 days to 5 days after symptom onset or after the initial positive test, followed by 5 days of masking. 3 However, the viral decay kinetics of the omicron variant and the duration of shedding of culturable virus have not been well characterized.