Despite the overwhelming reported cases of coronavirus patients relapsing after recovery from the disease, Scientists have now concluded that the possibility of that happening is unlikely.
While blaming the alleged relapse cases on testing failures, Researchers at the South Korean centre for disease control and prevention (CDC) says it’s impossible for the COVID-19 virus to reactivate in human bodies.
A total of 277 COVID-19 patients in South Korea tested positive for the coronavirus after having recovered, raising concerns that the virus could be mutating so quickly that people were not necessarily immune to contracting it again. But infectious disease experts have now discovered the virus was not reactivated and the tests were detecting dead fragments of the virus that were left in patients’ bodies.
Reports of patients testing positive twice aren’t limited to South Korea; they have also poured in from other countries, including China and Japan.
But the general consensus in the scientific community — with all the information available to date on the new coronavirus — is that people aren’t being reinfected, but rather falsely testing positive.
South Korea has now reported a total of 10,765 cases, out of which 9,059 people have been discharged and 247 people have died.
It should be noted however, that as at April 24th, the World Health Organization (WHO)-s position contradicts that of researchers on the subject.
In a scientific brief shared on its official website, WHO stated that persons who have recovered from COVID-19 are not immune against the disease. It wrote:
“Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the basis for an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’ that would enable individuals to travel or to return to work assuming that they are protected against re-infection.” Adding that, “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.”
