COVID-19 corpse still infectious 17 days after death
Infectivity was still present in one of the COVID-19 corpses after a post-mortem interval of 17 days and despite already visible signs of decomposition.
The duration of infectivity was impressive. Despite early transportation to the cooling chamber after death, the corpse displayed external and internal putrefaction due to the 17-day-period between death and autopsy.
Research paper: Infectivity of deceased COVID-19 patients
From 28 March 2020 to 7 April 2021, we routinely performed postmortem PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 RNA via nasopharyngeal swabs on all deceased cases prior to postmortem. Overall, 76 of 613 (12%) deceased individuals were positive.
BMJ Correspondence: Unexpected SARS-CoV-2 positivity in postmortem nasopharyngeal swabs
Man tests positive for Covid 28 times in the six weeks AFTER his death
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