A doctor fighting the coronavirus outbreak in China warns that patients who have recovered from the virus could still be contagious, the South China Morning Post reports.
Zhao Jianping, a respiratory and critical care specialist at Wuhan’s Tongji Hospital, is leading a group of experts attempting to contain the coronavirus officially known as COVID-19. He told the Southern People Weekly Magazine that although the number of daily recorded cases has dropped recently, “We should not be relaxed. The figure may go up again,” according to the SCMP. He also said some patients who have recovered from the infection still shows signs in tests of carrying the virus, which could mean they are still contagious.
"This is dangerous. Where do you put these patients? You can't send them home because they might infect others, but you can't put them in hospital as resources are stretched," he said, adding that “The number of patients has jumped from 27 to 70,000,” since he and his team first started treating coronavirus patients at the end of December. “It is highly contagious.”
Mark Harris, a professor at the University of Leeds’ School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, told Newsweek that he has yet to see evidence in any scientific publications that recovered patients still carry the virus.
"It is certainly possible but unlikely to be high levels or persist for a long period— otherwise they would continue to show symptoms,” he said. “We need some solid scientific evidence before making any conclusions about this.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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