text: Persistent Detection and Infectious Potential of SARS CoV 2 Virus in Clinical Specimens from COVID 19 Patients The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus SARS CoV 2 that emerged in December 2019 as the causative agent of Coronavirus 2019 COVID 19 and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 has several distinctive features including extensive multiorgan involvement with a robust systemic inflammatory response significant associated morbidity and mortality and prolonged persistence of viral RNA in the clinical specimens of infected individuals as detected by Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction RT PCR amplification This review begins with an overview of SARS CoV 2 morphology and replication and summarizes what is known to date about the detection of the virus in nasal oropharyngeal and fecal specimens of patients who have recovered from COVID 19 with a focus on the factors thought to contribute to prolonged detection This review also provides a discussion on the infective potential of this material from asymptomatic pre symptomatic and convalescing individuals to include a discussion of the relative persistence and infectious potential of virus in clinical specimens recovered from pediatric COVID 19 patients 