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SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean officials on Friday reported 91 patients who believed the new coronavirus had tested positive again.
A woman puts on plastic gloves to avoid contracting the coronavirus before casting her vote at a polling station in Seoul, South Korea on April 10, 2020. REUTERS / Heo Ran
Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), said in a briefing that the virus may have been “reactivated” rather than the patients being reinfected.
South Korean health officials said it was not yet clear what was behind the trend, with epidemiological investigations still ongoing.
The possibility of re-infection with the virus is a matter of international concern, as many countries expect infected populations to develop sufficient immunity to prevent a resurgence of the pandemic.
The South Korean figure had risen from 51 of those cases on Monday.
Almost 7,000 South Koreans have been reported as recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
“The number will only increase, 91 is just the beginning now,” said Kim Woo-joo, professor of infectious diseases at Guro Hospital, University of Korea.
KCDC’s Jeong raised the possibility that instead of patients re-infecting themselves, the virus may have been “reactivated.”
Kim also said that the patients had probably “relapsed” rather than been reinfected.
False test results could also be to blame, other experts said, or the remnants of the virus could still be in patients’ systems but not infectious or dangerous to the host or others.
“There are different interpretations and many variables,” said Jung Ki-suck, professor of pulmonary medicine at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital.
“The government needs to provide answers for each of these variables.”
South Korea reported 27 new cases on Friday, its lowest level after daily cases peaked at more than 900 in late February, according to KCDC, adding that the total stood at 10,450 cases.
The death toll rose by seven to 211, he said.
The city of Daegu, which suffered the first major coronavirus outbreak outside of China, reported zero new cases for the first time since the end of February.
With at least 6,807 confirmed cases, Daegu accounts for more than half of all South Korea’s total infections.
The spread of infections in a church in Daegu caused an increase in cases in South Korea in late February.
The outbreak initially boosted the confirmed case count much higher than anywhere else outside of China, before the country used widespread testing and social distancing measures to reduce the numbers.
Reports by Josh Smith and Sangmi Cha; editing by Michael Perry and Jason Neely
