Recovered COVID-19 patients who retest positive aren't infectious, study finds

Anuja Vaidya -

Patients who recover from COVID-19 and then retest positive for the new coronavirus are not infectious and cannot transmit the virus, a new study shows, according to Bloomberg.

Health officials in South Korea studied 285 COVID-19 patients who recovered and later tested positive for the virus.

The study shows that virus samples collected from the patients could not be grown from culture, which shows that the patients were shedding non-infectious or dead virus, Bloomberg reports.

The study was conducted by the Korean CDC, and its results will change protocols in the country. Korean officials will no longer require recovered patients to test negative for the virus before leaving isolation and returning to public spaces, according to the report.

 

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