More than 200 patients who were released from quarantine after recovering from COVID-19 have tested positive again for the virus, according to a press release issued by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
On Thursday, 15 South Korean patients who had recovered from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, retested positive, bringing the total to 222.
In South Korea—as of Thursday—10,702 people in South Korea have tested positive for the CCP Virus, 8,411 have been released from isolation, and 2,051 are under isolation. A total of 240 people have died from the virus there.
Medical officials aren’t sure how patients are being re-infected, and an in-depth epidemiological investigation is being conducted to figure out why the patients were retesting positive for the virus, according to the Korean Broadcasting Service.
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated during an interview that it is unlikely for a person who has been infected to become infected once more, considering how infections work.
“Generally we know with infections like this, that at least for a reasonable period of time, you’re gonna have antibodies levels that are going to be protective,” said Fauci.
Jung Eun-Kyeong, the KCDC director, suggested that the CCP virus was going dormant following treatment, and then resurfacing later, rather than patients getting reinfected, as previously reported by The Epoch Times.
Similarly, Kim Woo-Joo, a professor of infectious diseases at the Korea University Guro Hospital, also said that patients who were infected by the CCP Virus previously possibly could have “relapsed,” as opposed to being re-infected.
Fauci said there is a possibility that the CCP virus could mutate and re-infect an individual, similar to that of the normal flu. However, he said that while it is possible, he believes it is unlikely. So far, the virus hasn’t mutated enough for it to be able to reinfect people.