Should China count recovered coronavirus patients who test positive again?

Hubei health official says the cases aren’t considered new but the people will be sent back to hospital for observation

Estimates vary but Guangdong says about 14 per cent of those discharged test positive again

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Authorities in Hubei say they will not count patients who test positive again after discharge as fresh cases. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:34pm, 23 Mar 2020Updated: 11:50pm, 23 Mar 2020

Patients who test positive for coronavirus after being discharged from hospital will not be classified as fresh cases and there is no evidence that they remain infectious, according to a top health official in the central Chinese province where the pathogen was first detected.

Tu Yuanchao, deputy director of the health commission in Hubei province, said people who tested positive and showed coronavirus symptoms a second time would be sent to designated hospitals for treatment until they met discharge conditions again, the official Hubei Daily reported on Monday. They would then be observed for two weeks in isolation.

But they would not be counted as new cases, Tu was quoted as saying.

“Those who retest positive have already been reported as confirmed cases in their initial test, so they will not be repeatedly counted as new cases,” he said.

The National Health Commission said on Monday that of the 81,093 confirmed cases of Covid-19 – the disease caused by the coronavirus – more than 72,200 had recovered and been discharged from hospital.

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