14 PER CENT of coronavirus patients tested positive a SECOND time in one Chinese region, health official admits
- It comes after a 40-year-old woman in Japan was diagnosed a second time
- Experts in virology say it throws into question the reliability of Chinese testing
Around 14 per cent of coronavirus patients tested positive a second time in one Chinese region despite being given the all clear. A health official in Guangdong Province told The New York Times that the patients had been discharged from hospital after testing negative for the virus but then fell ill again later. It follows reports in Japan of a 40-year-old woman who tested positive for a second time yesterday. Experts said patients should develop an immunity to stop reinfection. Professor Mark Harris, Professor of Virology, University of Leeds, said: ‘Although coronaviruses generally cause short-term self-limiting infections which are cleared, there is some evidence in the scientific literature for persistent infections of animal coronaviruses, mainly in bats.’ Professor Harris added: ‘The reports that patients who tested negative subsequently tested positive again is clearly of concern. ‘It is unlikely that they would have been reinfected having cleared the virus, as they would most likely have mounted an immune response to the virus that would prevent such reinfection. ‘The other possibility therefore is that they did not in fact clear the infection but remained persistently infected.’ Around 14 per cent of coronavirus patients in one region of China have been diagnosed a second time. Pictured: Medical staff treating coronavirus patients at a hospital in Wuhan
- The secondary cases raise fears that patients have wrongly been declared free of the virus
A tour bus operator in Japan has also tested positive for coronavirus for a second time It’s not yet clear if the people who tested positive for a second time are contagious as 13 of those who were in close contact with more than 100 people after being discharged appear to have not passed it on, the health offical said. Patients in China must test negative twice and undergo a chest scan before they can be release.A woman in Japan who recovered from coronavirus and was released from hospital has tested positive again. The 40-year-old woman, who was initially infected after working on a tour bus with sightseers from Wuhan, tested positive for a second time yesterday. Government officials say it is the first known incident of this kind in Japan. The woman was first confirmed as infected with the coronavirus on January 29. After being discharged from hospital she tested negative for the virus on February 6, although she still had a cough at the time. She had no symptoms a week later, but returned to the doctor on February 21 complaining of a sore throat and chest pains. On Wednesday, she tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time, officials in Osaka said. The driver of the tour bus, which was carrying tourists from the city of Wuhan at the centre of the outbreak, also tested positive for the virus. Though a first known case for Japan, second positive tests have been reported in China where the disease originated late last year. At least 186 people in Japan have so far contracted the virus, with three deaths in the country linked to the outbreak. Prof Rowland Kao, Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science at the University of Edinburgh, said: ‘Assuming that there is a minimal possibility of misdiagnosis, it still remains unclear from the published reports whether the person involved was likely re-infected, or whether this represents an infection that may have been partially cleared or perhaps has gone latent. ‘In either case, given the number of reported cases thus far, it would seem unlikely that this is a common occurrence, and thus should have only a small impact on the overall epidemic projections themselves.’ ‘Of possibly greater concern are the implications for control measures – should quarantine periods be extended? It also makes contact tracing even more difficult, potentially straining resources.’