Virus Isolation from the First Patient with SARS-CoV-2 in Korea
Wan Beom Park, Nak‐Jung Kwon, Su-Jin Choi, Chang Kyung Kang, Pyoeng Gyun Choe, Jin Yong Kim, Ji-Young Yun, Gir-Won Lee, Moon‐Woo Seong, Nam Joong Kim, Jeong‐Sun Seo, Myoung‐don Oh
Abstract
Novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is found to cause a large outbreak started from Wuhan since December 2019 in China and SARS-CoV-2 infections have been reported with epidemiological linkage to China in 25 countries until now. We isolated SARS-CoV-2 from the oropharyngeal sample obtained from the patient with the first laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Korea. Cytopathic effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the Vero cell cultures were confluent 3 days after the first blind passage of the sample. Coronavirus was confirmed with spherical particle having a fringe reminiscent of crown on transmission electron microscopy. Phylogenetic analyses of whole genome sequences showed that it clustered with other SARS-CoV-2 reported from Wuhan.