South Korea: More than 50 patients test positive for Covid-19 again after recovery

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said that 51 people from Daegu city and neighboring North Gyeongsang province, the two epicenters of the Covid-19 epidemic in the country, tested positive again for the virus after being discharged from hospital.

However, KCDC Director-General Jeong Eun-kyeong informed that for the above cases, it is highly likely that the virus has re-emerged, not that they have been re-infected with a dangerous pathogen. The reason is that all tested positive for Covid-19 again within a relatively short period of time after stopping isolation treatment.

Yonhap quoted a statement from the KCDC saying that a team of experts has been sent to Daegu to conduct an epidemiological investigation into the above cases.

Meanwhile, some virologists and epidemiologists in South Korea also agree with Eun-kyeong's view. They say that the fact that recovered Covid-19 patients test positive again for the virus does not originate from misdiagnosis.

"There is a pattern of the virus level going down and then going up again. It is necessary to investigate thoroughly whether the virus level is low enough to produce a negative result," stressed Jegal Dong-wook, an infectious disease expert at the Catholic University of Korea.

According to South Korean health authorities, a Covid-19 patient is considered fully recovered after testing negative in two consecutive tests conducted 24 hours apart.

On April 7, South Korea recorded just under 50 new Covid-19 infections, the lowest daily increase since late February, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 10,384. To date, the country has had 200 deaths from the epidemic, along with 6,776 cases of patients recovering after treatment.