Recovered COVID-19 Patients Can Get Infected Again, Say Doctors

New Delhi: Reports are coming in from different parts of the country that patients who have recovered from COVID-19 are getting the infection all over again. News of such cases had first come from South Korea and China, reported India Today.

While 10 patients who were discharged from a Mohali hospital earlier this week tested positive again, one recovered patient was also found positive in Himachal Pradesh. There are reports that some coronavirus patients were also found symptomatic in Kerala, reported the news magazine.

“There are two different things, the infection and disease. Infection can happen when you get the virus inside the body and the disease will happen only when the virus starts multiplying and overwhelms your immune response,” Prof Ashish Bhalla of PGI Chandigarh told India Today TV.

Prof Bhalla said that coronavirus can be present in the body even when a patient’s immune system overwhelms the antigen. “Just the mere presence of the virus in your nasal cavity may not actually mean a disease until and unless it is proved that this person has symptoms,” he was quoted as saying by India Today.

He added that the virus mutates very fast. “In case the virus has mutated and a new strain has developed you can get the infection again . That is what is being seen in South Korea and in China also,” Prof Bhalla told India Today TV..

Prof GD Puri, Dean of Academics was quoted as saying in the report that a recovered COVID-19 patient cannot infect others beyond 10 days. However, such a patient is advised strict isolation for two weeks.

Prof GD Puri said normally when a patient is admitted, he is kept in the hospital for 10 days or till he recovers. If he is asymptomatic then after 10 days, as per the ICMR protocol, he is discharged and is advised to take precautions for one to two weeks and remain in isolation.

On how does one catch the COVID-19 infection, Dr. GD Puri told India Today TV, “It is a million-dollar question. People say it is airborne, some say it is a droplet infection. Yes, the virus has to come inside your mouth, nose, or wherever the mucous surface is. The only way out is to block the transmission.”

The doctors reiterated the three ground rules: Wearing masks, maintaining sizeable social and to avoid visiting crowded places.

The biggest reason for the transmission of COVID-19 is that people stop wearing a mask while being around colleagues, family members and friends thinking that it is safe, the report added.