Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019（COVID-19），which was caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 （SARS-CoV-2），broke out in December 2019. It spread rapidly throughout the world in a short time and caused a serious threat to global public health. SARS-CoV-2 presents a high infection rate，which is mainly transmitted through droplet and close contact. After the virus enters the human body，it is mainly replicated in the alveoli，which aggravates the inflammatory reaction in the lung and damages the lung tissue. It is found that SARS-CoV-2 can cause acute respiratory distress syndrome （ARDS） and severe pneumonia with multiple organ failure （MOF） in some severe patients. It has been reported that the RNA of SARS-CoV-2，even the live virus can be detected in the stool of some COVID-19 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms，which indicates that faecal-oral transmission is also a potential route of transmission. By searching the literature published in China and abroad from December 2019 to April 2020，we discussed the possibility of faecal-oral transmission of COVID-19 and put forward the methods to prevent infectious cases and environmental pollution caused by faecal-oral transmission，combined with reports about the faecal-oral transmission of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome（MERS）and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome（SARS）.

Key words: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, stool, throat swab, faecal-oral transmission