Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

March 15, 2021

A Follow-up Study Shows That Recovered Patients with Re-Positive PCR Test in Wuhan May Not Be Infectious

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  • A follow-up study analyzing data from 20,280 COVID-19 patients from multiple centers in Wuhan, China who received a positive PCR result between December 2019 and August 2020 found that 2,466 (12.2%) patients tested positive again (2,238 of were asymptomatic) after being discharged from the hospital. None of the 4,079 close contacts of patients who tested positive again had a positive PCR test. The authors suggest this may provide evidence that these individuals who tested positive again were not infectious at the time of testing. 

Wu et al. (Mar 15, 2021). A Follow-up Study Shows That Recovered Patients with Re-Positive PCR Test in Wuhan May Not Be Infectious. BMC Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-01954-1