Another 40 patients ‘cleared’ of coronavirus test POSITIVE for Covid-19 again in South Korea, bringing total ‘reactivations’ to 91
- Health officials believe it is not re-infection but the virus has been ‘reactivated’
- Early indications suggest the virus may lay dormant at undetectable levels
- False test results could also be to blame as many swab results return incorrect
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
Forty more coronavirus patients in South Korea thought to have recovered from the disease have tested positive again, after 51 others also tested positive after they had ‘recovered’ earlier this week.
Health officials have scrambled to allay creeping nervousness that people can be re-infected, which would fan panic in nations believed to be nearing herd immunity.
Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), told a briefing that the virus may have instead been ‘reactivated’.
Epidemiologists in Seoul are urgently trying to drill down into the cause of this bizarre trend, which was first witnessed in 51 patients from Daegu on Monday.
Kim Woo-joo, professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital, said: ‘The number will only increase, 91 is just the beginning now.’
Medical workers ventilate an empty ward at a hospital in the southeastern city of Daegu, South Korea
The country is still taking its epidemic seriously ahead of next week’s general election, and a Buddhist monk wearing a face mask is pictured casting an early vote
He added that the patients had likely ‘relapsed’ rather than been re-infected.
Early indications suggest the virus may lay dormant at undetectable levels in human cells, and is likely not infectious.
False test results could also be to blame, as a fifth of all swabs return incorrect verdicts.
Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases professor at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: ‘I agree that these will not be reinfections but I do not think these will be reactivations.
‘Personally I think the most likely explanation is that the clearance samples were false negative.’
Professor Hunter highlighted that conventional coronavirus tests can give the wrong result 20 to 30 per cent of the time.
Medical staffers gesture as they enter a hospital for a shift, in Daegu, 30 March 2020
The South Korean city of Daegu, which endured the first large coronavirus outbreak outside of China, today reported zero new cases for the first time since late February, as new infections across the country dropped to record lows
He believes the test the South Korean patients were given before being released from quarantine wrongly showed they had recovered, when they were actually were still infected.
‘There are different interpretations and many variables,’ said Jung Ki-suck, professor of pulmonary medicine at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital.
‘The government needs to come up with responses for each of these variables’.
Nearly 7,000 South Koreans have been reported as recovered from Covid-19, out of a confirmed 10,450 cases.
South Korea on Friday reported 27 new cases, its lowest after daily cases peaked at more than 900 in late February, while deaths rose by seven to 211.
The city of Daegu, which endured the first large coronavirus outbreak outside of China, reported zero new cases for the first time since late February.
With at least 6,807 confirmed cases, Daegu accounts for more than half of all South Korea’s total infections.
The spread of infections at a church in Daegu drove a spike in cases in South Korea beginning in late February.
The outbreak initially pushed the tally of confirmed cases much higher than anywhere else outside of China, before the country used widespread testing and social distancing measures to bring the numbers down.
But the country is still taking its epidemic seriously ahead of next week’s general election.
Election officials in Hazmat suits have been erecting polling stations for Wednesday’s ballot.