After contracting and surviving the new coronavirus, patients now need to wait for 30 days until they can have sexual relations.
Experts advise people off intimacy, anything from kissing to full intercourse, for at least a month after contracting and recovering from the new coronavirus.
After a Chinese study found that the new coronavirus may not only be carried by saliva but by the seminal fluid as well.
Veerawat Manosutthi, a senior medical expert at the Thai Disease Control Department, suggests celibacy for at least 30 days once someone has fully recovered from the disease.
The study, issued in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), took seminal fluid samples from 38 male patients infected with the new coronavirus in China's Henan province, which borders Wuhan, where the virus reportedly originated.
Researchers who studied and analyzed the samples taken from the patients on January 26 and again on February 16 detected that about 16% of the men surveyed had the new coronavirus traces in their semen.
The researchers said that while they are still unsure whether the disease can be sexually transmitted, it is safer for everyone to take precautions. This is because other non-sexually transmitted diseases, like Ebola and Zika, have been proven to spread through sexual intercourse in the past.
The scientists wrote that the presence of the viruses in semen may be more common than currently understood, and traditional non-sexually transmitted viruses should not be presumed to be completely absent in genital secretions.
The new coronavirus is primarily transmitted through respiratory droplets transmitted by sneezing and coughing, but it is unclear yet whether the virus is replicated in men's testicles. The JAMA study suggests that the traces of the virus could be found in semen because of the imperfect barrier between the part of the testicle where semen is made and the bloodstream. Through this, the virus may have determined its way from the blood into the semen.
Since many forms of intimacy require lesser distance than the six feet of separation as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This does not mean that you should restrict yourself from your partner or spouse and stop being intimate. If you are both feeling well and healthy, have had no known exposure to anyone who contracted the new coronavirus, are practicing social distancing, then, kissing, touching, hugging, and having sex are more likely to be safe. Similarly, sharing the same bed with a healthy partner should not be an issue.
Though reports claim that some people may have contracted the virus and do not exhibit any symptoms during the early part of the incubation period. In addition, some people may never develop obvious symptoms of the new coronavirus. In either case, it is possible that the virus might spread through physical contact and intimacy.
Manosutthi said that after 30 days of no sex, men who have recovered from the new coronavirus are recommended to use a condom when they become sexually active.
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