Despite Successfully Containing The Coronavirus Outbreak, South Korea Now Fears It’s ‘Reactivating'

Even though South Korea was one of the first countries to grapple with the coronavirus outbreak surging through the population, but it was also one of the few countries who took the situation in stride and marched forward to ensure that the damage is curbed and limited at best.

With the help of measures like drive-thru testing, the country managed to limit the death toll at 200 deaths and has been witnessing a progressive drop in the number of cases.

But while South Korea did attain this laudable feat without lockdowns or shutting down businesses, experts at the Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are afraid that the coronavirus may be “reactivating” in people who have been cured of the illness.

Till now, of the patients released from hospitals after testing negative for coronavirus, 51 have tested positive again. As per the testing procedure being followed in South Korea’s hospitals at the moment, patients are only released when they test negative for coronavirus back to back in two consecutive tests, separated by 24 hours. According to the CDC, chances are that instead of getting infected again, the virus, laying dormant in the host, may have been reactivated, said Jeong Eun-kyeong, director-general of the Korean CDC.

This situation in South Korea is similar to what has been observed in China, which lifted its lockdown after declaring that the pandemic is under control in the nation. There too, instances of re-infection have been found in recovered patients, of which many have even died from the disease after they were given a clean chit of health by the hospital.

“While we are putting more weight on reactivation as the possible cause, we are conducting a comprehensive study on this,” Jeong said. “There have been many cases when a patient during treatment will test negative one day and positive another,” he further explained, adding that the Korean CDC will be conducting an epidemiological probe into the cases.

So, as of now, South Korea has recorded 10, 450 cases of coronavirus positive patients, of which 7,117 have recovered and been released from the hospital, with the number of deaths at 208.