Recovered Patients of Coronavirus May Still Infect Others, Warns Chinese Expert

• Although Chinese experts have said that the risk may appear low, they admitted that a coronavirus transmission from a recovered patient is still a possibility.
• The Chinese government have recently discharged 36,444 coronavirus patients.
• There are also recorded instances of recovered patients coming back after being infected by the virus the second time.
• A Japanese tour guide in Wuhan, for instance, went back to the hospital and again tested positive after she recovered from the disease.

A respiratory expert in China warned the public that recovered patients coronavirus (Covid-19) may still infect other people once they have been discharged from the hospital. Dr. Zhao Jianping, leader of a coronavirus containment team in Hubei, said they have received several reports of discharged patients who eventually went back to the hospital because of sore throat and high fever. They later contracted the deadly virus again.

Although Zhao said it is still too early to confirm that the newly-discovered trend will happen to all who have recovered, experts are now trying to learn more about such possibilities.

“This is dangerous. Where do you put those patients? You cannot send them home because they might infect others, but you cannot put them in hospital as resources are stretched,” Zhao lamented.

Zhao shared about a case where one of his patients had been discharged after having tested negative of the virus. However, the patient went back with a fever after several days and tested positive again.

In Ontario, Canada, a news report said that two patients infected with coronavirus tested positive twice of the virus even after they have recovered from it. Still, Dr Kevin Patterson allayed the fears of a recurring scenario and assured the public that the “cases were not contagious”.

“Those organisms are dead because the treatment has killed them. And if you put (the organism) in a culture dish, you cannot grow the organism,” the doctor explained.

Patterson suspects that the bacteria or particles of the virus and viral DNA may be present or detected by the testing kits but he believes it is not infectious.

“If it (coronavirus) is contagious, it will be unusual,” he added.

China’s National Health Commission official Qui Haibo seconded Patterson’s statement, reiterating that those who have recovered from the deadly virus should not be contagious.

So far, there were 2 recovered patients in China who have tested positive of the virus again.

In Japan, a 40-year-old female Japanese tour guide who recovered from coronavirus has again showed symptoms. She tested positive once more, several weeks after her recovery.

The woman worked as a tour guide in Wuhan when it was confirmed that she was infected by the disease. 21 days after being released from the hospital, the she reported experiencing sore throat and chest pain and testing indicated that she was positive of coronavirus.

As of February 29, 36,117 patients in China have recovered. 3,622 patients have been discharged, and the numbers are expected to increase in the coming weeks.

Woman who recovered from coronavirus tests positive for it again in Japan https://t.co/LaS1z5kOD7 pic.twitter.com/QhTLbesDQB

— New York Post (@nypost) February 27, 2020

Their release, however, is amidst warning of a possible transmission from a recovered coronavirus patients to other people.