Korea’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention believes COVID-19 may be “reactivating” in people who have recovered from the virus.
In a press briefing on Monday, Jeong Eun-Kyeong, director-general of the Korean CDC, said 51 patients that classified as being fully recovered in South Korea have tested positive again after being released from the CDC’s recommended quarantine. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
It’s not that people are becoming infected a second time, but the CDC believes the virus may become dormant or undetected in some people. In other cases, experts say, some patients may have certain conditions or weak immunity that makes them susceptible to the virus reviving in their system, according to Reuters.
”While we are putting more weight on reactivation as the possible cause, we are conducting a comprehensive study on this,” Jeong said. “There have been many cases when a patient during treatment will test negative one day and positive another.”
Jeong said that the CDC will begin to conduct an epidemiological test on a patient that was classified as fully recovered and is now testing positive for the virus. The patient had originally tested negative after two tests within a 24-hour time period showed negative results before the patient was released from the hospital.
South Korea, one of the first countries to see a large-scale coronavirus outbreak, has only reported 200 deaths and a decreasing number of new cases since its peak on Feb. 29.
Relying on one of the most expensive testing programs and a tech-driven approach for contact tracing, Korea has reportedly managed to contain its epidemic without a stay at home orders or business closures.
However, there is a growing fear of reinfection in China after reports that fully recovered patients have tested positive again with some of those patients dying from the virus. As of last week, South Korea has had 10,384 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with over 6,000 people recovering. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News.
Epidemiologists from around the world are working together to find out more about COVID-19. Epidemiologists have now shifted focus towards patients who have contracted COVID-19 but have few to no symptoms, the publication reports.
