SEOUL, April 30 (WNM/Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security/Korean Herald) - According to South Korean media, national health experts reported that more than 260 COVID-19 patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 shortly after recovering were likely false positive tests rather than reinfections (http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200429000724).

The false positive test results are believed to have resulted from the test detecting the RNA of virus fragments. The PCR tests used to detect nucleic acids from clinical samples cannot distinguish between virus that is viable and not viable. When reports emerged several weeks ago about recovered COVID-19 patients testing positive, it raised concerns that individuals could be reinfected soon after recovering.

At that time, some experts, including Dr. Keiji Fukuda, Director of Hong Kong University's School of Public Health, suggested that it was more likely that the tests were detecting viral fragments than the recovered patients being immediately reinfected.