REPORT: Covid-19 Patients Who were Tested Negative Before Show up Positive Again in Korea

Immunity Hopes were Blown When Coronavirus Patients Who were Tested Negative Before Show up Positive Once More. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that it sent a team to Deagu, the worst-hit city to investigate why patients from there were testing positive again.

After the health officials reported on Friday that 91 patients thought to have been cleared of the virus were tested again and they were positive again, up from 51 people on Monday.

Some of the patients were testing positive again and had no symptoms, but there were some who were suffering from fevers and respiratory issues, sources revealed.

The South Korean health officials stated that it is not clear what is causing the trend, with the preliminary results, the investigations that are being done in Daegu will not be released before next week.

However, Jeong Eun-kyeong the director of the KCDC’s, revealed that it was possible that the virus could be “reactivated” in some persons and, the patients were not re-infected.

The possibility of false test results was also considered, as that could be at fault, and other experts said, remnants of the virus could still be in the systems of patients’ however it might not be infectious and pose a risk so this wouldn’t endanger the host or other persons.

The professionals considered the many risks, variables and different interpretations, there is a need to find responses for each variable.

South Korea was hailed as a success story previously When its swift implementation of large scale testing was implemented and the regime stopped the spread of the virus and this had led to a far lower fatality rate than the average numbers that were being reported in other countries. 

Over the past two months, there was a combination of measures including transparent reporting, mass-testing, social distancing and extensive contact tracing. The country had one of the worst outbreaks outside China in the early stages of the coronavirus spread, but the country has brought the situation under control.

Healthcare professionals said “We say that a patient has fully recovered when he or she tests negative twice within 24 hours. But the fact that some of them tested positive again in a short period means that the virus remains longer than we thought.”

Mr. Kim revealed that patients could relapse, and they were not re-infected. That is another possibility that is being considered.

WHO, replied to reports from Korea in a brief statement: “We are aware of these reports of individuals who have tested negative for Covid-19 using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing and then after some days testing positive again”.

Continued, “We are closely liaising with our clinical experts and working hard to get more information on those individual cases. It is important to make sure that when samples are collected for testing on suspected patients, procedures are followed properly.”

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