Coronavirus: South Korea on lookout for infected patients who do not show symptoms
- Authorities have called for a closer eye on asymptomatic patients after a woman tested positive for the virus after initially testing negative
- The country’s second patient to recover, a woman from Wuhan, called Korean medical personnel ‘heroes’ in a letter released to press
The woman is a relative of the country’s 15th case, a Korean man who had travelled to Wuhan last month and was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Sunday.
The woman was tested again for the virus after she began feeling unwell and tested positive for it, along with three other new patients, authorities said on Thursday. She was quarantined at home before she began to show symptoms.
Citing health authorities, Suwon City mayor Yeom Tae-young posted on Facebook that the woman was unlikely to have spread the virus.
“There was little possibility of the patient spreading the virus when she tested negative in the first examination on February 2, although she might have been carrying virus at that time,” he said.
Korean authorities’ concerns echo those of global experts who are looking into the possibility that the coronavirus could be spread by infected individuals who do not show any symptoms, or whose symptoms take the form of mild complaints such as a backache or headache at an early stage of infection.