Viral Load, Detection Rate and Sensitivity of Nasopharyngeal and Oropharyngeal Swab Sampling for Diagnosis of COVID-19

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a major public health crisis. Accurate screening methods for infection is essential and crucial case detection, isolation, prevention control current pandemic. At present, nasopharyngeal oropharyngeal swabs are typically used as method choice diagnosis SARS-CoV-2 infection. We carried out review on accuracy two different sampling sites, swab sampling, focusing viral load, detection positive cases sensitivity in real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay diagnosing COVID-19. A total 25 articles related topic were selected 5221 searched online using Scopus, PubMed Medline, Embase, Web Science, Google scholar with keywords COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, swab, nasal throat swab. All full text original obtained reviewed. Nasopharyngeal had significantly higher load than (mean Ct value ranging from 24.3-37.8, rate (highest 62.5%) 98.3%, P<0.05) RT-PCR compared Based scientific literature review, both reported have 30% probability yielding false negative results; thus clinically suspicious patients results should be viewed concern. In conclusion, although several type specimen available, best option large scale it yields among detecting SARS-CoV-2.