Recovered COVID patients not infectious: health authority

From: Shenzhen Daily | Updated:2022-04-21

Recovered COVID-19 patients and asymptomatic patients who have been removed from medical observation have antibodies and cannot infect others, based on current research and clinical experience, according to the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission.

Recovered COVID patients who test positive a second time are also not infectious, according to a study jointly conducted by the Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen in 2020, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

The study results showed that none of the close contacts of recovered patients who test positive again were COVID-19 positive, and the researchers were unable to isolate the virus from the patients’ test samples.

According to experts from the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, in most cases where patients were positive again after recovering from COVID-19, only fragments of the virus could be detected, instead of the virus’ complete genome sequence.

Meanwhile, the probability of COVID reinfection is very low based on the COVID treatment experience at home and abroad. At present, there are only a few patients with second infections in China and foreign countries and regions, and reinfection is prone to affect patients with weak immune systems.

But experts warned the public to be vigilant against COVID reinfections, which are more common in foreign countries. A person can be infected with different COVID variants such as Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron, but the chances of a second infection with the same variant by the same person are extremely unlikely.

According to China’s COVID diagnosis and treatment protocol, patients can be discharged if they test negative for COVID for two consecutive days, with their CT values greater or equal to 35.

The hospital will disinfect relevant articles and environment, including patients’ luggage, clothing and personal belongings, before discharging the recovered patients, and will dispose of used disposable articles, garbage and abandoned objects as medical waste.



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