Clearance and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in patients with COVID-19.

Patients with coronavirus disease-2019 may be discharged based on clinical resolution of symptoms, and evidence for viral RNA clearance from the upper respiratory tract. Understanding the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral clearance profile is crucial to establish a re-testing plan on discharge and ending isolation of patients. We aimed to evaluate the number of days that a patient needed to achieve undetectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 in upper respiratory tract specimens (nasopharyngeal swab and/or an oropharyngeal swab). The clearance and persistence of viral RNA was evaluated in two groups of positive patients: those who achieved two negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests and those who kept testing positive. Patients were organized thereafter in two subgroups, mild illness patients discharged home and inpatients who had moderate to severe illness. Results from RT-PCR tests were then correlated with results from the evaluation of the immune response. The study evidenced that most patients tested positive for more than 2 weeks and that persistence of viral RNA is not necessarily associated with severe disease but may result from a weaker immune response instead.

O ato de presentear como processo de sacralização: o escapulário como símbolo de amor e proteção / Gift-giving as a scralization process: the catholic scapular as a symbol of love and protection

Com objetivo de compreender como acontece a sacralização do objeto de consumo escapulário para católicos realizou-se uma investigação qualitativa. Foram realizadas entrevistas com católicos que usam escapulário regularmente. Os discursos coletados passaram pela análise de conteúdo que revelou como resultado de pesquisa que o local do "sagrado" em relação ao escapulário, está vinculado à sua capacidade de proteger seu usuário. Ainda essa capacidade de proteção não está vinculada apenas ao objeto em si, mas no fato deste ter sido recebido como presente de uma pessoa amada. O que sacraliza então não é apenas a religião, mas a relação de afeto entre quem recebeu o escapulário de presente e a pessoa que o presenteou.(AU)

In order to understand how the process of sacralization of the scapular consumption object takes place for Catholics who use this item, a qualitative investigation was carried out. Interviews were conducted with Catholics who use scapular regularly. The speeches collected went through the content analysis of the speeches of these users, which revealed, as a result of research, that the place of the "sacred" in relation to the scapular, is linked to its ability to protect its user. Yet this protective capacity is not only linked to the object itself, but to the fact that it was received as a gift by a beloved person. What sacralizes it, then, is not just religion, but the affectionate relationship between the person who received the scapular as a gift and the person who gives it.(AU)