Coronavirus: 91 ‘recovered’ patients test positive again in South Korea #COVID19 #coronavirus #SouthKorea #pandemic

In what could be a further blow to hopes of an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, officials in South Korea on Friday reported 91 patients thought cleared of the coronavirus had tested positive again, Reuters reports.

The prospect of people being re-infected with the virus is of international concern, as many countries are hoping that infected populations will develop sufficient immunity to prevent a resurgence of the pandemic.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), told a briefing that the virus may have been “reactivated” rather than the patients being re-infected.

False test results could also be at fault, other experts said, or remnants of the virus could still be in patients’ systems but not be infectious or of danger to the host or others.

“There are different interpretations and many variables,” said Jung Ki-suck, professor of pulmonary medicine at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital.

Nearly 7,000 South Koreans have been reported as recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

“The number will only increase, 91 is just the beginning now,” said Kim Woo-joo, professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital. He said it was likely that the patients had “relapsed” rather than been infected a second time.

Courtesy of theguardian.com