Recovered coronavirus patients who tested positive again weren't infectious, Korean CDC finds


The Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released findings late Monday after studying 285 COVID-19 survivors who tested positive for the coronavirus again after presumably recovering the illness. The virus samples collected from the patients couldn't be grown in culture, suggesting that the patients had indeed recovered and were actually shedding non-infectious or dead virus particles, rather than suffering from a lingering infection, Bloomberg reports.
While there will likely be more work done in this area, it's encouraging news, and South Korean health authorities — who have received praise for setting a global standard during the pandemic — will no longer consider people infectious after they recover from their illness and won't require additional tests after patients are discharged from their isolation period. That means those patients won't have to test negative before returning to work or school.
Another positive sign from the findings is that almost all of the cases for which blood cases were taken had antibodies against the virus, which lends credence to the theory that people who were previously infected have built up some form of protection. Read more at Bloomberg.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Japan's surname conundrum
Under the Radar Law requiring couples to share one surname hinders women in the workplace and lowers birth rate, campaigners claim
-
How successful would Elon Musk's third party be?
Today's Big Question Musk has vowed to start a third party after falling out with Trump
-
Music reviews: Bruce Springsteen and Benson Boone
Feature "Tracks II: The Lost Albums" and "American Heart"
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, change
Speed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panel
speed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kids
Speed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sick
speed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last year
speed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
-
Trump seeks to cut drug prices via executive order
speed read The president's order tells pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices, but it will likely be thrown out by the courts
-
RFK Jr. visits Texas as 2nd child dies from measles
Speed Read An outbreak of the vaccine-preventable disease continues to grow following a decade of no recorded US measles deaths
-
Shingles vaccine cuts dementia risk, study finds
Speed Read Getting vaccinated appears to significantly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia