Body of drowned Ukrainian man tests Covid positive 28 times over 6 weeks

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The body of a Ukrainian man who died from drowning in Italy tested positive for Covid-19 as many as 28 times in the six weeks after his death, according to scientists who examined his corpse.

The 41-year-old went missing while swimming at sea with his friends during rough weather near the Italian city of Chieti. His body was found wedged between rocks 16 hours later, according to the study published in the Journal of Medicine Case.

The man was believed to be asymptomatic before his death. However, during a routine Covid test of the corpse as part of his autopsy, the swab result turned out to be positive, according to scientists of Italy’s D’Annunzio University.

Over a period of 41 days, 28 tests were carried out on the corpse, and they all turned out to be positive. The man’s body was kept at 4C in the morgue at Chieti Hospital inside a sealed waterproof bag.

While there is limited data on the transmission of infection from a corpse, this is a rare case that is shedding light on how long the Covid-19 infection can persist in a body even after the person is dead.

“The present case shows the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA up to 41 days after death,” the researchers from the university’s Center for Advanced Studies and Technology wrote.

“Data about its persistence are of fundamental importance for pathologists to understand when the handling of the corpse is safe, and further studies are needed to estimate the virus contagiousness.”

More tests could not be performed due to the man’s burial after 41 days.

However, scientists warned that the case reflects the “importance of postmortem swabs in all autopsy cases, and not only in potential severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-related death.”

They also emphasised the need to evaluate virus positivity a long time after the moment of death, even if a low initial viral load was assessed.