Coronavirus: researchers call for review of hospital discharge guidelines
- Some recovered patients breathe out thousands of viral particles, Chinese-led small-scale study finds
- Cases could be potential sources of hidden spread, scientists say, but it is not known if the particles are infectious
These patients tested repeatedly negative with throat swabs, their lung images were back to normal, and symptoms such as fever had disappeared.
But each minute, some could still exhale thousands of particles of Sars-CoV-2, the formal name for the coronavirus, the study found.
“[There is] an urgent need to revisit current hospital discharge guidelines to minimise the public risk,” the researchers led by Peking University professor Zhang Yuanhang said in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Aerosol Science on Thursday.
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The qualifications for discharge vary from one hospital to another, and country to country. In China, the health authorities need to see at least three negative PCR tests for a pass, among other requirements.