About 14 percent of those who have fully recovered from the coronavirus and were discharged from the hospitals in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, tested positive again. Positive tests indicate that recovered patients still can transmit the virus and this makes it even more difficult to fight the disease. It’s not clear why they still have the virus and if such patients are still contagious, said Song Tie, deputy director of the Guangdong Centre of Disease Control And Prevention, on Tuesday.
According to the latest treatment guidelines for coronavirus issued by the National Health Commission, patients can be considered recovered and released from hospital only when their throat or nose swabs show up negative in two consecutive tests, and if a CT scan indicates no lung injuries.
The National Health Commission guidelines also suggest that they shoud monitor every patient even after his recovery. The patient should stay in home quarantine for two weeks after leaving the hospital.
In the follow-up checks it turned out that some patients tested positive again, said Li Yueping, director of the intensive care unit at Guangzhou Hospital. Thus, they were still positive, although they showed no symptoms.
New discovery
Patients whose throat or nose swabs have showed up negative were then also tested on their anal swab, which turned out to be positive. So the Medical University discovered another path of transmission – not just by coughing and sneezing. From now on, they check anal swabs, too.