China’s Coronavirus Patients are Testing Positive again Weeks after Recovery [Video]

• Coronavirus patients in China are reportedly testing positive again weeks after having recovered.
• In other countries, patients have been testing positive for over a month — much longer than the recommended 14-day quarantine period after exposure.
• Doctors in Wuhan are now extending the period of isolation for patients as a precaution.

More and more coronavirus patients in China are reportedly testing positive again for COVID-19 after having recovered.

According to doctors in Wuhan, the believed origin of the outbreak in December, the patients had already tested negative for COVID-19 at some point during their recovery. However, they began testing positive again –while not showing symptoms — weeks after recovery.

Some patients had been cleared for as much as 70 days before testing positive again.

Official numbers on how many recovered patients retested positive have not yet been released. According to data from Chinese hospitals, which were obtained by Reuters and other media outlets, there are at least dozens.

Chinese health officials stated that there have been no reports yet of retested positive patients infecting others.

The phenomenon has other countries worried, especially where there have been reports of patients testing positive for more than 2 weeks.

The globally recommended 14-day quarantine period after exposure now looks doubtful, causing countries to rethink about lifting lockdown measures.

In Italy, patients have reportedly tested positive for over a month. In South Korea, about 1,000 people have been testing positive for four weeks or more.

Doctors in Wuhan are now extending the period of isolation for patients as a precaution. But the emotional impact this has is a major concern.

Zhang Dingyu, president of Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, remarked, “When patients have this pressure, it also weighs on society.”

These cases highlight the fact that there are still a lot of unknowns regarding COVID-19, including why it affects different people in different ways.

Yuan Yufeng, a vice president at Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, told Reuters, “We did not see anything like this during SARS.” The severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak affected 8,098 people globally in 2003, mostly in China.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the novel coronavirus has infected more than 2.5 million and killed over 179,000 worldwide.

Source: New York Post