South Korea reported on April 13 that 116 people who were initially cleared of the coronavirus had tested positive again. The country reported only 25 new cases on Monday, but the rise in reactivated patients has raised concerns from the public.
Officials are investigating the cause of the relapses. But the director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or KCDC, Jeong Eun-Kyeong, stated that the virus may have been reactivated rather than the patients being re-infected. Some experts said that faulty tests may have played a role while others suggest that remnants of the virus may still be in the systems of the patients, but it is not infectious nor does it pose danger to the host or others.
South Korea infected patients test positive again
A Seoul official told Reuters that South Korea plans to send 600,000 coronavirus testing kits to the United States on April 14, following a request from U.S President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, government leaders called on South Koreans to continue to follow guidelines and restrictions on social gatherings but hinted that the measures could soon be eased.
South Korea's guidelines are supposed to end on April 19, but as cases have dropped and the weather has improved, more and more South Koreans have been flouting the guidelines.
At a meeting on disaster management, Prime Minister Chung Sye-Kyun said that the government would soon be looking to loosen the guidelines, which call for people to stay at home, avoid social gatherings of any type and only go out for essential reasons.
The Prime Minister stated that they plan to review the intensive social distancing campaign that they have carried out so far and discuss whether they will switch to routine safety measures. Some local governments have imposed stricter measures and that included closing nightclubs and bars, banning large demonstrations and limiting church services.
Chung Sye-Kyun stated that they need a cautious approach because any premature easing of social distancing could bring irreversible consequences, and they have to ponder deeply about when and how they switch to the new system.
Being reinfected with COVID-19
Experts believe having the virus once does not mean you can't get sick from it again. According to the director of pneumonia prevention and treatment at China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, Li QinGyuan, those who have been infected with COVID-19 develop a protective antibody, but it is not clear how long the protection lasts.
An assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Dr. Peter Jung, told The Huffington Post that just as the flu can mutate, so could COVID-19, which would make an individual susceptible to reacquiring the infection.
However, according to an infectious disease physician, Dr. Stephen Gluckman, it seems likely that having the disease once results in immunity in most people, as seen with other viruses. This means that those who initially recovered from COVID-19 are more likely to relapse rather than get reinfected with the virus.
As for the 116 coronavirus patients who tested positive again, they are under close monitoring.
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