question: Can viral culture be used to demonstrate that a person who had persistently or recurrently detectable viral RNA is not infectious to others?
answer: Yes. However, viral culture is not widely performed for SARS-CoV-2. It must be conducted in Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories using BSL-3 practices by experienced virologists and culture results can take a week or more. Therefore, while persons whose specimens do not yield live virus are considered no longer infectious, the complexity of such testing and the time required to complete it mean that culture cannot be used routinely to guide management of infected persons.