Recurrence of positive SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in recovered COVID-19 patients during medical isolation observation

Abstract

Recently, the recurrence of positive SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in recovered COVID-19 patients is receiving more attention. Herein we report a cohort study on the follow-up of 182 recovered patients under medical isolation observation. Twenty (10.99%) patients out of the 182 were detected to be SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive (re-positives), although none showed any clinical symptomatic recurrence, indicating that COVID-19 responds well to treatment. Patients aged under 18 years had higher re-positive rates than average, and none of the severely ill patients re-tested positive. There were no significant differences in sex between re-positives and non-re-positives. Notably, most of the re-positives turned negative in the following tests, and all of them carried antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. This indicates that they might not be infectious, although it is still important to perform regular SARS-CoV-2 RNA testing and follow-up for assessment of infectivity. The findings of this study provide information for improving the management of recovered patients, and for differentiating the follow-up of recovered patients with different risk levels.

Figure 1

(A) RT-PCR testing of 15 re-positive cases out of 20. Data shows RT-PCR results of blood, nasopharyngeal swabs, and anal swabs tested on the 1st, 4th, and 7th day (2nd and 6th day for case 1, 13, and 14). (B) The timeline of case 19.