Three Recovered Coronavirus Patients in Armenia Test Positive Again After Two Weeks

• 05.04.2020, 14:01
•  World,  Armenia,  No-politics

Three people in Armenia have tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks after being treated for the disease and discharged from a hospital, suggesting potential re-infection, Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosyan told lawmakers at a committee meeting when asked whether or not re-infections have been recorded, Armenpress reports.

“Unfortunately such cases were recorded, including in Armenia. But there is a big academic debate going on about this. And every day we are receiving updated scientific information on whether or not these were re-infections, meaning the patient was treated and then contracted the infection again, or whether it was simply a de-activation of the virus in the body, and then re-activation, and we were unable to detect the virus in a de-activated state because the patient was asymptomatic and the swab didn’t contain the virus. Or the most likely case is that this is the non-active particles of the virus in tissues, when the virus is not multiplying, but its DNA is present in the cells, and we simply detect it upon testing,” Torosyan said, adding that only three people in Armenia have tested positive again after being discharged following treatment for COVID-19.

These three people have been quarantined as a precaution to rule out potential spread of the disease.

According to Torosyan, such cases are reported mostly in China and South Korea, and scientists from South Korea are the ones who concluded that these aren’t re-infections, but rather a kind of virus residue in the throat tissues.

Anyhow, since it is unclear at the moment whether or not recovered patients are immune to the coronavirus, Torosyan urged them to maintain all precautionary and safety rules like others.