The Bavarian Influenza Sentinel (BIS) monitors the annual influenza season by combining virological and epidemiological data. The 2019/2020 influenza season overlapped with the beginning COVID-19 pandemic thus allowing to investigate whether there was an unnoticed spread of SARS-CoV-2 among outpatients with acute respiratory infections in the community prior to the first COVID-19 cluster in Bavaria. Therefore, we retrospectively analysed oropharyngeal swabs obtained in BIS between calendar week (CW) 39 in 2019 and CW 14 in 2020 for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-PCR. 610 of all 1376 BIS swabs-contained sufficient material to test for SARS-CoV-2, among them 260 oropharyngeal swabs which were collected prior to the first notified German COVID-19 case in CW 04/2020. In none of these swabs SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected suggesting no SARS-CoV-2 spread prior to late January 2020 in Bavaria.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Influenza, RT-PCR, Surveillance, 【초록키워드】 Influenza, COVID-19 pandemic, RT-PCR, Spread, oropharyngeal swab, Community, Cluster, Acute respiratory infection, outpatients, epidemiological data, SARS-CoV-2 RNA, Swab, respiratory, acute respiratory infections, sentinel, Outpatient, Virological, COVID-19 case, oropharyngeal swabs, MONITOR, collected, analysed, overlapped, 【제목키워드】 Spread, Germany,