Table 1.

Reported distributions of the concentration of RNA copies (gene copies, gc) in human faeces (C_faeces)

Study	Distribution of concentrations	Comment
Wölfel et al. [31]	Stool samples occur in a range between below LoD to about 7.5 log10 copies per swab Average 6.76 × 105 copies per throat/nasal swab; max 7.11 × 108	Observations from hospitalised patients Decline in concentration over time
Ahmed et al. [1]	Uniform (2.56, 7.67) log10 gc/g	Based on [31]
Curtis et al. [34]	Between 100 and 7.1 × 108 gc/g	Based on [31]
Lui et al. [43]	Between 3 and 6.2 log10 gc/ml Median 4.1	Observations from hospitalised patients
Han et al. [44]	Between LoD and 10.3 log10 gc/ml Median 7.63	Observations from mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic children
Medema et al. [12]	Gamma (10.78, 0.46) mean = 4.95, s.d. 1.5 log10 gc/g	Based on five publications
Miura et al. [41]	Mean 3.4 (95% CrI 0.24–6.5) log10 gc/g over the whole shedding period Peak concentration 6.5 (95% CrI 5.6–7.4) log10 gc/g	Based on [31] and a fitted dynamical model for decline over time
Chavarria-Miró et al. [45]	Between 3 and 7 log10 gc/g Mean first 10 days 5.3, later 4.9	Based on [31]
Li et al. [46]	Between 1 and 8 log10 gc/g Mean: 4.23, s.e. 0.133	From systematic review
Schmitz et al. [47]	Between 5.74 and 8.28 log10 gc/g Mean: 7.39, s.e. 0.67 Median: 6.64	Observations from student dormitories
McMahan et al. [28]	Normal (7.6,0.8) log10 gc/g faeces after 5 days; Normal (3.5,0.35) log10 gc/g faeces after 25 days	Based on [31] Dynamical model includes change in concentration over time

LoD, limit of detection.