Figure 1
(a) Infectious titer determined by viral culturing using plaque assay as a function of gene copies of SARS-CoV-2 RNA (N gene) per mL of sample (comprising viral transport media and respiratory tract fluid) determined by RT-qPCR. Solid or hollow circles were positive or negative by viral culture, respectively (limit of detection: 5 PFU/mL). The dark gray line represents the mean ratio of infectious titer/mL to gene copies/mL for a range of samples using the same viral culture and RT-qPCR methods as in this study42. The shaded region shows the 95% confidence interval. (b) Gene copies/mL for each sample type as a standard box-and-whisker plot and including all participants in this study. One set of field blanks (denoted by triangles) was gathered from a hospital inpatient not infected with SARS-CoV-2. The small markers depict the results of each individual sample. (c) Fraction of samples which showed positive viral culture as a function of gene copies/mL using data from Lin et al.42 (33% positive by viral culture) and reproduced from Wölfel et al.43 for mostly sputum samples and van Kampen et al.44 for samples from the respiratory tract.
