Health

People who test positive for coronavirus after recovery are not contagious, research shows

admin


People who recover from coronavirus and test positive again are NOT contagious: Korean CDC finds ‘re-positive’ patients have not infected any of their 790 contacts

  • The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 285 coronavirus survivors who tested positive after other tests said they were negative
  • Of the 790 people contacted by the patients, none were found to be infected with COVID-19
  • Korean health authorities rename ‘re-positive cases’ as ‘PCR redetected after discharge from isolation’
  • Researchers believe that the patients were not reinfected, but that they repelled dead virus particles
  • Here’s how you can help people affected by Covid-19

By Mary Kekatos Senior Health Reporter for Dailymail.com

Published: 8:29 PM CEST, May 19, 2020 | Updated: 8:30 PM BST, May 19, 2020

Patients who test positive for the new coronavirus after recovery are not contagious, a new study finds.

Researchers at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) looked at 285 survivors who tested positive after previous tests said they were negative.

None of the 790 people that patients came into contact with were found to be infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The team says the findings are a sign that some areas may be safer to reopen than previously believed.

Of the 790 people with whom approximately 285 “reinfected” coronavirus patients came into contact, none appeared to be infected with the virus. Pictured: people wearing face masks wait for a test for the new coronavirus at a test facility in Incheon, South Korea, May 13

Researchers believe that the patients were not reinfected, but that they repelled dead virus particles. Pictured: Staff at a COVID-19 test center hands over a mouth swab self-test kit to a driver at a drive-up test center in Los Angeles, California, May 14

Researchers believe that the patients were not reinfected, but that they repelled dead virus particles. Pictured: Staff at a COVID-19 test center hands over a mouth swab self-test kit to a driver at a drive-up test center in Los Angeles, California, May 14

Researchers believe that the patients were not reinfected, but that they repelled dead virus particles. Pictured: Staff at a COVID-19 test center hands over a mouth swab self-test kit to a driver at a drive-up test center in Los Angeles, California, May 14

Researchers also found that the virus samples collected from the patients who tested positive a second time could not be grown in laboratory cultures.

This suggests that the patients were not reinfected, but rather that they repel dead virus particles.

The results are welcome afterwards health authorities in South Korea raised the alarm last month with dozens of recovered patients who again tested positive for the virus.

According to the KCDC, more than 400 people have reconfirmed the cases of the virus since Tuesday.

“We place more value on the theory that dead virus fragments remain in the body of a recovered patient, as we have seen no evidence of infectivity,” said Dr. Ki Moran, a professor at the National Cancer Center Graduate School, The Wall Street Journal.

Because of the study results, South Korean health officials will no longer consider people infectious after recovering from COVID-19.

This means that after recovery or completion of an isolation period, the resident does not have to test negative for the virus before returning to school or work

“Under the new protocols, no additional testing is required for cases released from isolation,” the KCDC wrote in a report according to Bloomberg.

Cases where someone has tested positive again are not referred to as ‘PCR redetected after discharge from isolation’.

The report also found that nearly all 285 patients had antibodies, providing more evidence that antibodies provide protection against the virus.

However, it remains unclear how many antibodies one needs to prevent reinfection and how long they stay in the body.

The findings are important not only to South Korea, but to the rest of the world, including local and state governments in the US, who are struggling with how to safely reopen.

One idea was to issue ‘immunity passports’ or ‘risk-free certificates’ to people who were infected but later tested negative.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) advised against this, saying that the accuracy of such documents could not be guaranteed.

Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the basis for an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’ that allows individuals to travel or return to work on the assumption that they are protected against reinfection, “the WHO said in a statement.

“There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and who have antibodies are protected from a second infection.”

.