Research

Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by

real-time RT-PCR
Victor M Corman¹, Olfert Landt², Marco Kaiser², Richard Molenkamp³, Adam Meijer⁴, Daniel KW Chu⁵, Tobias Bleicker¹, Sebastian
Brünink¹, Julia Schneider¹, Marie Luisa Schmidt¹, Daphne GJC Mulders³, Bart L Haagmans³, Bas van der Veer⁴, Sharon van den
Brink⁴, Lisa Wijsman⁴, Gabriel Goderski⁴, Jean-Louis Romette⁶, Joanna Ellis⁷, Maria Zambon⁷, Malik Peiris⁵, Herman Goossens⁸,
Chantal Reusken⁴, Marion PG Koopmans³, Christian Drosten¹
1. Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin Institute of Virology, Berlin, Germany and German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF),
Berlin, Germany
2. Tib-Molbiol, Berlin, Germany
3. Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
4. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
5. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
6. Universite d Aix-Marseille, Marseille, France
7. Public Health England, London, United Kingdom
8. Department of Medical Microbiology, Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Correspondence: Christian Drosten ([email protected])

Citation style for this article:

Corman Victor M, Landt Olfert, Kaiser Marco, Molenkamp Richard, Meijer Adam, Chu Daniel KW, Bleicker Tobias, Brünink Sebastian, Schneider Julia, Schmidt Marie
Luisa, Mulders Daphne GJC, Haagmans Bart L, van der Veer Bas, van den Brink Sharon, Wijsman Lisa, Goderski Gabriel, Romette Jean-Louis, Ellis Joanna, Zambon
Maria, Peiris Malik, Goossens Herman, Reusken Chantal, Koopmans Marion PG, Drosten Christian. Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time
RT-PCR. Euro Surveill. 2020;25(3):pii=2000045. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045

Article submitted on 21 Jan 2020 / accepted on 22 Jan 2020 / published on 23 Jan 2020

Background: The ongoing outbreak of the recently as the causative agent by Chinese authorities on
emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) poses a chal- 7 January. A viral genome sequence was released
lenge for public health laboratories as virus isolates for immediate public health support via the com-
are unavailable while there is growing evidence that munity online resource  virological.org  on 10 January
the outbreak is more widespread than initially thought, (Wuhan-Hu-1, GenBank accession number MN908947
and international spread through travellers does [2]), followed by four other genomes deposited on 12
already occur. Aim: We aimed to develop and deploy January in the viral sequence database curated by the
robust diagnostic methodology for use in public health Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID).
laboratory settings without having virus material avail- The genome sequences suggest presence of a virus
able. Methods: Here we present a validated diagnostic closely related to the members of a viral species termed
workflow for 2019-nCoV, its design relying on close severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-related CoV,
genetic relatedness of 2019-nCoV with SARS coronavi- a species defined by the agent of the 2002/03 outbreak
rus, making use of synthetic nucleic acid technology. of SARS in humans [3,4]. The species also comprises a
Results: The workflow reliably detects 2019-nCoV, large number of viruses mostly detected in rhinolophid
and further discriminates 2019-nCoV from SARS-CoV. bats in Asia and Europe.
Through coordination between academic and public
laboratories, we confirmed assay exclusivity based As at 20 January 2019, 282 laboratory-confirmed
on 297 original clinical specimens containing a full human cases have been notified to WHO [5]. Confirmed
spectrum of human respiratory viruses. Control mate- cases in travellers from Wuhan were announced on 13
rial is made available through European Virus Archive and 17 January in Thailand as well as on 15 January in
– Global (EVAg), a European Union infrastructure pro- Japan and 19 January in Korea. The extent of human-
ject. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates the to-human transmission of 2019-nCoV is unclear at the
enormous response capacity achieved through coordi- time of writing of this report but there is evidence of
nation of academic and public laboratories in national some human-to-human transmission.
and European research networks.
Among the foremost priorities to facilitate public health
Introduction interventions is reliable laboratory diagnosis. In acute
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the respiratory infection, RT-PCR is routinely used to detect
WHO China Country Office was informed of cases of causative viruses from respiratory secretions. We have
pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan City, Hubei previously demonstrated the feasibility of introducing
Province, on 31 December 2019 [1]. A novel coronavirus robust detection technology based on real-time RT-PCR
currently termed 2019-nCoV was officially announced in public health laboratories during international

www.eurosurveillance.org 1
Table 1
Primers and probes, real-time RT-PCR for 2019 novel coronavirus

Assay/use Oligonucleotide Sequencea Concentrationb

RdRp_SARSr-F GTGARATGGTCATGTGTGGCGG Use 600 nM per reaction
Specific for 2019-nCoV, will not detect
SARS-CoV.
RdRp_SARSr-P2 FAM-CAGGTGGAACCTCATCAGGAGATGC-BBQ
Use 100 nM per reaction and mix with P1
RdRP gene
Pan Sarbeco-Probe will detect 2019-nCoV,
SARS-CoV and bat-SARS-related CoVs.
RdRP_SARSr-P1 FAM-CCAGGTGGWACRTCATCMGGTGATGC-BBQ
Use 100 nM per reaction and mix with P2
RdRp_SARSr-R CARATGTTAAASACACTATTAGCATA Use 800 nM per reaction
E_Sarbeco_F ACAGGTACGTTAATAGTTAATAGCGT Use 400 nm per reaction
E gene E_Sarbeco_P1 FAM-ACACTAGCCATCCTTACTGCGCTTCG-BBQ Use 200 nm per reaction
E_Sarbeco_R ATATTGCAGCAGTACGCACACA Use 400 nm per reaction
N_Sarbeco_F CACATTGGCACCCGCAATC Use 600 nm per reaction
N gene N_Sarbeco_P FAM-ACTTCCTCAAGGAACAACATTGCCA-BBQ Use 200 nm per reaction
N_Sarbeco_R GAGGAACGAGAAGAGGCTTG Use 800 nm per reaction

 W is A/T; R is G/A; M is A/C; S is G/C. FAM: 6-carboxyfluorescein; BBQ: blackberry quencher.

a

 Optimised concentrations are given in nanomol per litre (nM) based on the final reaction mix, e.g. 1.5 µL of a 10 µM primer stock solution per
b

25 µL total reaction volume yields a final concentration of 600 nM as indicated in the table.

health emergencies by coordination between public comprised sputum as well as nose and throat swabs
and academic laboratories [6-12]. In all of these situ- with or without viral transport medium.
ations, virus isolates were available as the primary
substrate for establishing and controlling assays and Faecal samples containing bat-derived SARS-related
assay performance. CoV samples (identified by GenBank accession
numbers) were tested: KC633203, Betacoronavirus
In the present case of 2019-nCoV, virus isolates or BtCoV/Rhi_eur/BB98–98/BGR/2008; KC633204,
samples from infected patients have so far not become Betacoronavirus BtCoV/Rhi_eur/BB98–92/BGR/2008;
available to the international public health community. KC633201, Betacoronavirus BtCoV/Rhi_bla/BB98–22/
We report here on the establishment and validation BGR/2008; GU190221 Betacoronavirus Bat coronavi-
of a diagnostic workflow for 2019-nCoV screening and rus BR98–19/BGR/2008; GU190222 Betacoronavirus
specific confirmation, designed in absence of available Bat coronavirus BM98–01/BGR/2008; GU190223,
virus isolates or original patient specimens. Design Betacoronavirus Bat coronavirus BM98–13/BGR/2008.
and validation were enabled by the close genetic relat- All synthetic RNA used in this study was photometri-
edness to the 2003 SARS-CoV, and aided by the use of cally quantified.
synthetic nucleic acid technology.
RNA extraction
Methods RNA was extracted from clinical samples with the
MagNA Pure 96 system (Roche, Penzberg, Germany)
Clinical samples and coronavirus cell culture and from cell culture supernatants with the viral RNA
supernatants for initial assay evaluation mini kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany).
Cell culture supernatants containing typed coronavi-
ruses and other respiratory viruses were provided by Real-time reverse-transcription PCR
Charité and University of Hong Kong research labo- A 25 μL reaction contained 5 μL of RNA, 12.5 μL of
ratories. Respiratory samples were obtained during 2 × reaction buffer provided with the Superscript III
2019 from patients hospitalised at Charité medical one step RT-PCR system with Platinum Taq Polymerase
centre and tested by the NxTAG respiratory pathogen (Invitrogen, Darmstadt, Germany; containing 0.4 mM
panel (Luminex, S´Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands) of each deoxyribont triphosphates (dNTP) and 3.2 mM
or in cases of MERS-CoV by the MERS-CoV upE magnesium sulphate), 1 μL of reverse transcriptase/
assay as published before [10]. Additional samples Taq mixture from the kit, 0.4 μL of a 50 mM magne-
were selected from biobanks at the Rijksinstituut sium sulphate solution (Invitrogen), and 1 μg of nona-
voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM), Bilthoven, cetylated bovine serum albumin (Roche). Primer and
at Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, probe sequences, as well as optimised concentra-
at Public Health England (PHE), London, and at the tions are shown in  Table 1. All oligonucleotides were
University of Hong Kong. Samples from all collections synthesised and provided by Tib-Molbiol (Berlin,

2 www.eurosurveillance.org
Figure 1
Relative positions of amplicon targets on the SARS coronavirus and the 2019 novel coronavirus genome

Orf1a Orf1ab S E M N
MN908947 W uhan-Hu-1

NC_004718 SARS-CoV

15,361–15,460 26,141–26,253 28,555–28,682

RdRp E N

E: envelope protein gene; M: membrane protein gene; N: nucleocapsid protein gene; ORF: open reading frame; RdRp: RNA-dependent RNA
polymerase gene; S: spike protein gene.

Numbers below amplicons are genome positions according to SARS-CoV, GenBank NC_004718.

Germany). Thermal cycling was performed at 55 °C for synthetic, etc), as well as sequence duplicates were
10 min for reverse transcription, followed by 95 °C for removed, resulting in a final list of 375 sequences.
3 min and then 45 cycles of 95 °C for 15 s, 58 °C for 30 These sequences were aligned and the alignment was
s. Participating laboratories used either Roche Light used for assay design (Supplementary Figure S1). Upon
Cycler 480II or Applied Biosystems ViiA7 instruments release of the first 2019-nCoV sequence at virological.
(Applied Biosystems, Hong Kong, China). org, three assays were selected based on how well
they matched to the 2019-nCoV genome (Figure 1). The
Protocol options and application notes alignment was complemented by additional sequences
Laboratories participating in the evaluation used the released independently on GISAID (https://www.
TaqMan Fast Virus 1-Step Master Mix (Thermo Fisher) gisaid.org), confirming the good matching of selected
with the same oligonucleotide concentrations and primers to all sequences. Alignments of primer bind-
cycling conditions. The QIAGEN One-Step RT-PCR Kit ing domains with 2019-nCoV, SARS-CoV as well as
was also tested and found to be compatible. selected bat-associated SARS-related CoV are shown
in Figure 2.
The intended cross-reactivity of all assays with viral
RNA of SARS-CoV allows us to use the assays without Assay sensitivity based on SARS coronavirus
having to rely on external sources of specific 2019- virions
nCoV RNA. To obtain a preliminary assessment of analytical sen-
sitivity, we used purified cell culture supernatant
For a routine workflow, we recommend the E gene assay containing SARS-CoV strain Frankfurt-1 virions grown
as the first-line screening tool, followed by confirma- on Vero cells. The supernatant was ultrafiltered and
tory testing with the RdRp gene assay. Application of thereby concentrated from a ca 20-fold volume of cell
the RdRp gene assay with dual colour technology can culture supernatant. The concentration step simulta-
discriminate 2019-nCoV (both probes positive) from neously reduces the relative concentration of back-
SARS-CoV RNA if the latter is used as positive control. ground nucleic acids such as not virion-packaged viral
Alternatively, laboratories may choose to run the RdRp RNA. The virion preparation was quantified by real-
assay with only the 2019-nCoV-specific probe. time RT-PCR using a specific in vitro-transcribed RNA
quantification standard as described in Drosten et al.
Ethical statement [8]. All assays were subjected to replicate testing in
The internal use of samples for diagnostic workflow order to determine stochastic detection frequencies
optimisation was agreed under the medical ethical at each assay’s sensitivity end point (Figure 3A and
rules of each of the participating partners. B). All assays were highly sensitive, with best results
obtained for the E gene and RdRp gene assays (5.2 and
Results 3.8 copies per reaction at 95% detection probability,
Before public release of virus sequences from cases of respectively). These two assays were chosen for further
2019-nCoV, we relied on social media reports announc- evaluation. One of the laboratories participating in the
ing detection of a SARS-like virus. We thus assumed external evaluation used other basic RT-PCR reagents
that a SARS-related CoV is involved in the outbreak. (TaqMan Fast Virus 1-Step Master Mix) and repeated
We downloaded all complete and partial (if > 400 nt) the sensitivity study, with equivalent results (E gene:
SARS-related virus sequences available in GenBank by 3.2 RNA copies/reaction (95% CI: 2.2–6.8); RdRP: 3.7
1 January 2020. The list (n = 729 entries) was manually RNA copies/reaction (95% CI: 2.8–8.0). Of note, the N
checked and artificial sequences (laboratory-derived, gene assay also performed well but was not subjected

www.eurosurveillance.org 3
Figure 2
Partial alignments of oligonucleotide binding regions, SARS-related coronaviruses (n = 9)

RdRp_SARSr-
A. RdRp gene RdRp_SARSr-F P1: RdRp_SARSr-R

P2: RdRP_SARSr-P2
WH-Human_1|China|2019-Dec
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IPBCAMS-WH-01/2019|EPI_ISL_402123
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-01/2019|EPI_ISL_402119
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-04/2020|EPI_ISL_402120
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-05/2019|EPI_ISL_402121
BetaCoV/Wuhan/WIV04/2019|EPI_ISL_402124
MG772933 Bat SARS-related CoV (bat-SL-CoVZC45)
NC_004718 Human SARS-related CoV (e.g. Frankfurt-1)
NC_014470 Bat SARS-related CoV (BM48-31/BGR/2008)

E_Sarbeco_F E_Sarbeco_P1 E_Sarbeco_R

B. E gene
WH-Human_1|China|2019-Dec
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IPBCAMS-WH-01/2019|EPI_ISL_402123
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-01/2019|EPI_ISL_402119
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-04/2020|EPI_ISL_402120
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-05/2019|EPI_ISL_402121
BetaCoV/Wuhan/WIV04/2019|EPI_ISL_402124
MG772933 Bat SARS-related CoV (bat-SL-CoVZC45)
NC_004718 Human SARS-related CoV (e.g. Frankfurt-1)
NC_014470 Bat SARS-related CoV (BM48-31/BGR/2008)

N_Sarbeco_F N_Sarbeco_P N_Sarbeco_R

C. N gene
WH-Human_1|China|2019-Dec
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IPBCAMS-WH-01/2019|EPI_ISL_402123
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-01/2019|EPI_ISL_402119
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-04/2020|EPI_ISL_402120
BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-05/2019|EPI_ISL_402121
BetaCoV/Wuhan/WIV04/2019|EPI_ISL_402124
MG772933 Bat SARS-related CoV (bat-SL-CoVZC45)
NC_004718 Human SARS-related CoV (e.g. Frankfurt-1)
NC_014470 Bat SARS-related CoV (BM48-31/BGR/2008)

The panels show six available sequences of 2019-nCoV, aligned to the corresponding partial sequences of SARS-CoV strain Frankfurt 1,
which can be used as a positive control for all three RT-PCR assays. The alignment also contains a closely related bat virus (Bat SARS-related
CoV isolate bat-SL-CoVZC45, GenBank accession number MG772933) as well as the most distant member within the SARS-related bat CoV
clade, detected in Bulgaria (GenBank accession number NC_014470). Dots represent identical nucleotides compared with the WH_Human_1
sequence. Nucleotide substitutions are specified. Blue arrows: oligonucleotides as specified in Table 1. More comprehensive alignments can
be found in the Supplement.

to intensive further validation because it was slightly only with 2019-nCoV. By limiting dilution experiments,
less sensitive (Supplementary Figure S2) we confirmed that both probes, whether used indi-
vidually or in combination, provided the same LOD for
Sensitivity based on in vitro-transcribed RNA each target virus. The specific probe RdRP_SARSr-P2
identical to 2019 novel coronavirus target detected only the 2019-nCoV RNA transcript but not the
sequences SARS-CoV RNA.
Although both assays detected 2019-nCoV without
polymorphisms at oligonucleotide binding sites (Figure Detection range for SARS-related
2), we additionally generated in vitro-transcribed RNA coronaviruses from bats
standards that exactly matched the sequence of 2019- At present, the potential exposure to a common envi-
nCoV for absolute quantification and studying the limit ronmental source in early reported cases implicates
of detection (LOD). Replicate reactions were done at the possibility of independent zoonotic infections with
concentrations around the detection end point deter- increased sequence variability [5]. To show that the
mined in preliminary dilution experiments. The result- assays can detect other bat-associated SARS-related
ing LOD from replicate tests was 3.9 copies per reaction viruses, we used the E gene assay to test six bat-
for the E gene assay and 3.6 copies per reaction for the derived faecal samples available from Drexler et al.
RdRp assay (Figure 3C and D). These figures were close [13] und Muth et al. [14]. These virus-positive samples
to the 95% hit rate of 2.9 copies per reaction, according stemmed from European rhinolophid bats. Detection
to the Poisson distribution, expected when one RNA of these phylogenetic outliers within the SARS-related
molecule is detected. CoV clade suggests that all Asian viruses are likely to
be detected. This would, theoretically, ensure broad
Discrimination of 2019 novel coronavirus from sensitivity even in case of multiple independent acqui-
SARS coronavirus by RdRp assay sitions of variant viruses from an animal reservoir.
Following the rationale that SARS-CoV RNA can be
used as a positive control for the entire laboratory pro- Specificity testing
cedure, thus obviating the need to handle 2019-nCoV
RNA, we formulated the RdRp assay so that it contains Chemical stability
two probes: a broad-range probe reacting with SARS- To exclude non-specific reactivity of oligonucleo-
CoV and 2019-nCoV and an additional probe that reacts tides among each other, causing artificial fluorescent

4 www.eurosurveillance.org
Figure 3
Determination of limits of detection based on SARS coronavirus genomic RNA and 2019 novel coronavirus-specific in vitro
transcribed RNA

A. E gene assay vs SARS-CoV: 5.2 c/r (95% CI: 3.7–9.6) B. RdRp gene assay vs SARS-CoV: 3.8 c/r (95% CI: 2.7–7.6)

1 1

0.9 0. 9

0.8 0. 8

e
0.7 0. 7
Fraction positive

0.6

Fraction positiv
0. 6

0.5 0. 5

0.4 0. 4

0.3 0. 3

0.2 0. 2

0.1 0. 1

0 0
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20. 0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20. 0

Copies per reaction Copies per reaction

C. E gene assay vs 2019-nCoV IVT RNA: 3.9 c/r (95% CI: 2.8–9.8) D. RdRp assay vs 2019-nCoV IVT RNA: 3.6 c/r (95%: 2.7–11.2)

1 1

0.9 0. 9

0.8 0. 8

0.7 0. 7
Fraction positive

Fraction positive

0.6 0. 6

0.5 0. 5

0.4 0. 4

0.3 0. 3

0.2 0. 2

0.1 0. 1

0 0
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20. 0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20. 0

Copies per reaction Copies per reaction

CI: confidence intervals; c/r: copies per reaction; IVT: in vitro-transcribed RNA.

A: E gene assay, evaluated with SARS-CoV genomic RNA. B: RdRp gene assay evaluated with SARS-CoV genomic RNA. C: E-gene assay,
evaluated with 2019-nCoV-specific in vitro-transcribed RNA standard. D: RdRp gene assay evaluated with 2019-nCoV-specific in vitro-
transcribed RNA standard.

The x-axis shows input RNA copies per reaction. The y-axis shows positive results in all parallel reactions performed, squares are
experimental data points resulting from replicate testing of given concentrations (x-axis) in parallels assays (eight replicate reactions per
point).

Technical limits of detection are given in the panels headings. The inner line is a probit curve (dose-response rule). The outer dotted lines are
95% CI.

www.eurosurveillance.org 5
Table 2
standards designed for absolute quantification of viral
Tests of known respiratory viruses and bacteria in clinical load. Additional undiluted (but not quantified) cell cul-
samples and cell culture preparations for cross-reactivity
in 2019 novel coronavirus E and RdRp gene assays (n = ture supernatants were tested as summarised in Table
310) 2. These were additionally mixed into negative human
sputum samples. None of the tested viruses or virus
Clinical samples with known Clinical Virus preparations showed reactivity with any assay.
viruses samplesa isolatesb
HCoV-HKU1 14 1c Exclusivity of 2019 novel coronavirus based on clinical
HCoV-OC43 16 2d samples pre-tested positive for other respiratory viruses
HCoV-NL63 14 1e Using the E and RdRp gene assays, we tested a total
HCoV-229E 18 2f of 297 clinical samples from patients with respiratory
MERS-CoV 5 1g disease from the biobanks of five laboratories that
Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 17 1 provide diagnostic services (one in Germany, two in
Influenza A(H3N2) 16 1 the Netherlands, one in Hong Kong, one in the UK). We
Influenza A (untyped) 11 NA
selected 198 samples from three university medical
centres where patients from general and intensive care
Influenza A(H5N1) 1 1
wards as well as mainly paediatric outpatient depart-
Influenza A(H7N9) 0 1
ments are seen (Germany, the Netherlands, Hong
Influenza B (Victoria or
Yamagata)
31 1 Kong). The remaining samples were contributed by
Rhinovirus/enterovirus 31 NA
national public health services performing surveillance
studies (RIVM, PHE), with samples mainly submitted
Respiratory syncytial virus (A/B) 33 NA
by practitioners. The samples contained the broadest
Parainfluenza 1 virus 12 NA
range of respiratory agents possible and reflected the
Parainfluenza 2 virus 11 NA
general spectrum of virus concentrations encountered
Parainfluenza 3 virus 14 NA in diagnostic laboratories in these countries (Table 2).
Parainfluenza 4 virus 11 NA In total, this testing yielded no false positive outcomes.
Human metapneumovirus 16 NA In four individual test reactions, weak initial reactivity
Adenovirus 13 1 was seen but they were negative upon retesting with
Human bocavirus 6 NA the same assay. These signals were not associated
Legionella spp. 3 NA with any particular virus, and for each virus with which
Mycoplasma spp. 4 NA initial positive reactivity occurred, there were other
Total clinical samples 297 NA samples that contained the same virus at a higher con-
centration but did not test positive. Given the results
a
 For samples with multiple viruses detected, the virus with highest from the extensive technical qualification described
concentration is listed, as indicated by real-time PCR Ct value.
above, it was concluded that this initial reactivity was
b
 Directly quantified or spiked in human negative-testing sputum.
c
 1 × 105 RNA copies/mL, determined by specific real-time RT-PCR.
not due to chemical instability of real-time PCR probes
Isolated from human airway epithelial culture. but most probably to handling issues caused by the
d
 1 × 1010 RNA copies/mL, determined by specific real-time RT-PCR rapid introduction of new diagnostic tests and controls
of one isolate. The other isolate was not quantified but spiked in
human negative-testing sputum. during this evaluation study.
e
 4 × 109 RNA copies/mL, determined by specific real-time RT-PCR.
f 
3 × 109 RNA copies/mL, determined by specific real-time RT-PCR Discussion
of one isolate. The other isolate was not quantified spiked in The present report describes the establishment of a
human negative-testing sputum.
g
 1 × 108 RNA copies/mL, determined by specific real-time RT-PCR. diagnostic workflow for detection of an emerging virus
in the absence of physical sources of viral genomic
nucleic acid. Effective assay design was enabled by the
willingness of scientists from China to share genome
information before formal publication, as well as the
availability of broad sequence knowledge from ca 15
signals, all assays were tested 120 times in parallel years of investigation of SARS-related viruses in animal
with water and no other nucleic acid except the pro- reservoirs. The relative ease with which assays could
vided oligonucleotides. In none of these reactions was be designed for this virus, in contrast to SARS-CoV in
any positive signal detected. 2003, proves the huge collective value of descriptive
studies of disease ecology and viral genome diversity
Cross-reactivity with other coronaviruses [8,15-17].
Cell culture supernatants containing all endemic human
coronaviruses (HCoV)229E, NL63, OC43 and HKU1 as Real-time RT-PCR is widely deployed in diagnostic virol-
well as MERS-CoV were tested in duplicate in all three ogy. In the case of a public health emergency, profi-
assays (Table 2). For the non-cultivable HCoV-HKU1, cient diagnostic laboratories can rely on this robust
supernatant from human airway culture was used. Viral technology to establish new diagnostic tests within
RNA concentration in all samples was determined by their routine services before pre-formulated assays
specific real-time RT-PCRs and in vitro-transcribed RNA become available. In addition to information on

6 www.eurosurveillance.org
 Chen Y-M, Pei Y-Y, Xu L, Wang W, Zhao S, Yu B, Hu Y, Tao Z-W,
reagents, oligonucleotides and positive controls, lab- Song Z-G, Tian J-H, Zhang Y-L, Liu Y, Zheng J-J, Dai F-H, Wang
oratories working under quality control programmes Q-M, She J-L and Zhu T-Y)
need to rely on documentation of technical qualifi-
cation of the assay formulation as well as data from
external clinical evaluation tests. The provision of con- We thank Marta Zuchowski, Sigrid Kersten, and Joerg
trol RNA templates has been effectively implemented Hofmann for help with sample logistics. In vitro-transcribed
control RNA for the E gene assay can be acquired from author
by the EVAg project that provides virus-related rea- C. D. through the European Virus Archive platform (www.eu-
gents from academic research collections [18]. SARS- ropean-virus-archive.com),
CoV RNA was retrievable from EVAg before the present
outbreak; specific products such as RNA transcripts
for the here-described assays were first retrievable Conflict of interest
from the EVAg online catalogue on 14 January 2020
(https://www.european-virus-archive.com). Technical None declared.
qualification data based on cell culture materials and
synthetic constructs, as well as results from exclusiv-
ity testing on 75 clinical samples, were included in the Authors’ contributions
first version of the diagnostic protocol provided to the VMC: Planned and conducted experiments, conceptualised
WHO on 13 January 2020. Based on efficient collabo- the laboratory work
ration in an informal network of laboratories, these
data were augmented within 1 week comprise testing OL: Planned and conducted experiments, conceptualised the
results based on a wide range of respiratory pathogens laboratory work
in clinical samples from natural infections. Comparable MK: Planned and conducted experiments
evaluation studies during regulatory qualification of in
vitro diagnostic assays can take months for organisa- RM: Planned and conducted experiments, conceptualised
tion, legal implementation and logistics and typically the laboratory work
come after the peak of an outbreak has waned. The
AM: Planned and conducted experiments, conceptualised
speed and effectiveness of the present deployment the laboratory work
and evaluation effort were enabled by national and
European research networks established in response DKWC: Planned and conducted experiments
to international health crises in recent years, demon-
strating the enormous response capacity that can be TB: Planned and conducted experiments
released through coordinated action of academic and SB: Planned and conducted experiments
public laboratories [18-22]. This laboratory capacity not
only supports immediate public health interventions JS: Planned and conducted experiments
but enables sites to enrol patients during rapid clinical
research responses. MLS: Planned and conducted experiments

DGJCM: Planned and conducted experiments

Acknowledgements BLH: Planned and conducted experiments

This work was funded by European Union DG Research
through projects Prepare (GA602525), Compare (GA643476), BvdV: Planned and conducted experiments
and EVAg (GA653316); by European Union DG SANCO
through EVD-LabNet, as well as by the German Ministry SvdB: Planned and conducted experiments
of Research through projects RAPID (01KI1723A) and DZIF
(301-4-7-01.703). LW: Planned and conducted experiments

GG: Planned and conducted experiments

We gratefully acknowledge the authors, the originating and
submitting laboratories for their sequence and metadata JLR: Contributed to overall study conceptualization
shared through GISAID, on which this research is based.
All authors of data may be contacted directly via www.gi- JE: Planned and conducted experiments, conceptualised the
said.org: National Institute for Viral Disease Control and laboratory work
Prevention, China CDC (Wenjie Tan, Xiang Zhao, Wenling
Wang, Xuejun Ma, Yongzhong Jiang, Roujian Lu, Ji Wang, MZ: Planned laboratory work, contributed to overall study
Weimin Zhou, Peihua Niu, Peipei Liu,Faxian Zhan, Weifeng conceptualization
Shi, Baoying Huang, Jun Liu, Li Zhao, Yao Meng, Xiaozhou
He, Fei Ye, Na Zhu, Yang Li, Jing Chen, Wenbo Xu, George MP: Planned laboratory work, contributed to overall study
F. Gao, Guizhen Wu); Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese conceptualization
Academy of Sciences (Peng Zhou, Xing-Lou Yang, Ding-Yu
Zhang, Lei Zhang, Yan Zhu, Hao-Rui Si, Zhengli Shi); Institute HG: Contributed to overall study conceptualization
of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
and Peking Union Medical College (Lili Ren, Jianwei Wang, CR: Planned experiments, conceptualised the laboratory
Qi Jin, Zichun Xiang, Yongjun Li, Zhiqiang Wu, Chao Wu, work
Yiwei Liu); and National Institute for Communicable Disease
Control and Prevention (ICDC), China CDC (Zhang Y-Z, Wu, F, MPGK: Planned experiments, conceptualised the laboratory
work

www.eurosurveillance.org 7
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