Health experts believe the coronavirus replicates in the respiratory tract, causing mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. In order to preserve the specimen, it is first chilled before being shipped with an ice pack to a qualified lab with access to a coronavirus test kit. The test kit is called the “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time Reverse Transcriptase (RT)-PCR Diagnostic Panel". This code, called the viral genome, provides the blueprint for the virus as it replicates and the coronavirus test works by determining whether any given specimen contains the distinct coronavirus genome, according to the CNN report. "If any of the samples test positive for coronavirus, then we will know that the virus has begun spreading in the country.

Source: bd News24 March 07, 2020 12:56 UTC