April 16, 2020 / Alexandra Sternlicht, Forbes Staff
TOPLINE – In China and South Korea COVID-19 survivors are retesting positive for the virus, further complicating the issues of post-recovery immunity and test validity.
KEY FACTS
- 141 COVID-19 survivors in South Korea have retested positive for the disease—the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) is investigating the cause—uncertain whether the second-time positive patients are actually again infected or victims of erroneous tests, says CNN.
- Similarly, about 5-10% of recovered patients in Wuhan, China re-tested positive for the virus at the end of March, according to data NPR obtained from Wuhan quarantine facilities that house COVID-19 patients after hospital discharge.
- The immune response to coronavirus, including the duration of immunity,is “not yet understood,” says the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
- The FDA has given emergency approval to three antibody tests, which measure recovery from COVID-19, and are just becoming available, though experts have raised serious concerns about the available tests’ accuracy as they hit the market without rigorous clinical vetting.
