Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov;92(11):2263-2265.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.26114. Epub 2020 Jun 9.

Retest positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA of "recovered" patients with COVID-19: Persistence, sampling issues, or re-infection?

Hanyujie Kang  1 , Yishan Wang  1 , Zhaohui Tong  1 , Xuefeng Liu  2
Affiliations

Retest positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA of "recovered" patients with COVID-19: Persistence, sampling issues, or re-infection?

Hanyujie Kang et al. J Med Virol. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

"Retest Positive" for severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) from "recovered" coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has been reported and raised several important questions for this novel coronavirus and COVID-19 disease. In this commentary, we discussed several questions: (a) Can SARS-CoV-2 re-infect the individuals who recovered from COVID-19? This question is also associated with other questions: whether or not SARS-CoV-2 infection induces protective reaction or neutralized antibody? Will SARS-CoV-2 vaccines work? (b) Why could some recovered patients with COVID-19 be re-tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA? (c) Are some recovered pwith atients COVID-19 with re-testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA infectious? and (d) How should the COVID-19 patients with retest positive for SARS-CoV-2 be managed?

Keywords: SARS coronavirus < virus classification; coronavirus < virus classification; disease control; immunity/immunization < epidemiology; persistent infection < infection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

  • COVID-19 reinfection in a healthcare worker.
    Bongiovanni M. Bongiovanni M. J Med Virol. 2021 Jul;93(7):4058-4059. doi: 10.1002/jmv.26565. Epub 2021 Feb 15. J Med Virol. 2021. PMID: 32990954 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

References

    1. Lan L, Xu D, Ye G, et al. Positive RT‐PCR test results in patients recovered from COVID‐19. JAMA. 2020. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ling Y, Xu SB, Lin YX, et al. Persistence and clearance of viral RNA in 2019 novel coronavirus disease rehabilitation patients. Chin Med J (Engl). 2020;133:1039‐1043. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Qu YM, Kang EM, Cong HY. Positive result of Sars‐Cov‐2 in sputum from a cured patient with COVID‐19. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020;34:101619. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kipkorir V, Cheruiyot I, Ngure B, Misiani M, Munguti J. Prolonged SARS‐Cov‐2 RNA detection in anal/rectal swabs and stool specimens in COVID‐19 patients after negative conversion in nasopharyngeal RT‐PCR Test. J Med Virol. 2020. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fu W, Chen Q, Wang T. Letter to the Editor: three cases of re‐detectable positive SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA in recovered COVID‐19 patients with antibodies. J Med Virol. 2020. - PMC - PubMed