Authorities: "No Cases of Infection from Contact with COVID-19 Repositive Patients Reported So Far" (Update)

On the 10th, employees at the Daegu Hospital of the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service in Buk-gu, Daegu, are moving to ventilate the fourth-floor patient rooms, which had been vacated by all patients three days earlier.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] As of the 17th, a total of 163 cases of COVID-19 re-positivity have been identified. This accounts for about 2% of all patients who have been released from isolation.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters for COVID-19, it takes an average of about 13.5 days from the time a patient, confirmed positive and treated, is released from isolation until they test positive again. The re-positivity occurred as soon as one day later, and in some cases more than a month (35 days) after release.

By age group, people in their 20s were the most numerous with 38 cases, followed by those in their 50s (32 cases) and 30s (24 cases). By region, most cases (121) were in Daegu and Gyeongbuk. Among 137 re-positive cases with reported clinical and epidemiological information, 61 (43.9%) showed symptoms, but all symptoms were mild.

Among 294 contacts of re-positive cases, 38 have completed 14 days of monitoring, and the remaining 256 are still being observed. So far, no secondary infections have been reported. Although 13 confirmed cases were reported among cohabiting family members of contacts, all were re-positive cases and not new infections, according to the quarantine authorities.

The health authorities currently assess that the infectiousness of re-positive cases is low or almost nonexistent. At a briefing, Director Jeong Eun-kyung stated, "To analyze the infectiousness of the virus, we collected 28 re-positive specimens. Virus cultures from six initial specimens were negative," adding, "The remaining 22 specimens are currently undergoing virus culture testing."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.