Uploaded September 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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COVID patients exhale high numbers of virus during the first eight days after symptoms start, as high as 1,000 copies per minute, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. It is the first longitudinal, direct measure of the number of SARS-CoV-2 viral copies exhaled per minute over the course of the infection — from the first sign of symptoms until 20 days after.
On day eight, exhaled levels of virus drop steeply, down to near the limit of detection —an average of two copies exhaled per minute. ____

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