--- title: "More Recovered Coronavirus Patients Are Testing Positive Again" description: "South Korean officials reported today that more than 116 people had tested positive for COVID-19 after having been cleared of it previously." date: "2020-04-13" modified: "2020-04-13" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/more-recovered-coronavirus-patients-testing-positive-again" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "Pathogens" - "Viruses" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid-19" - "virus" --- # More Recovered Coronavirus Patients Are Testing Positive Again ![South Korean officials reported today that more than 116 people had tested positive for COVID-19 after having been cleared of it previously.]() *\Image: Images via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\* South Korean officials say that more than 116 people have tested positive for COVID-19 —after having been cleared of it previously, [*Reuters* reports](). That's bad news for public health, because it's been a widespread assumption that people who recover from the coronavirus will be able to [go out and resume their lives]() after recovering. There are plenty of caveats to South Korea's plans, though. According to Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the virus may have reactivated itself rather than the patients being re-infected. There's also the possibility that early COVID-19 tests showed false positives. And despite the apparent reinfections, South Korea is still planning to ease restrictions in the near future. Last week, South Korea only reported 51 new cases of COVID-19. Twenty-five were reported today. "Later this week, we plan to review our intensive social distancing campaign that we have carried out so far and discuss whether we will switch to routine safety measures," prime minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a Monday disaster management meeting, [as quoted by *Reuters*](). South Korea rolled out one of the earliest and most effective national responses to the outbreak. Early on, the country started testing [hundreds of thousands]() of people for the deadly virus, while countries like the United States were still trying to get hold of working testing kits. Now, South Korea is filling in with the US's shortcomings, sending over 600,000 testing kits this week. Despite its successes in getting the outbreak under control, South Korea's leadership is hesitant about easing restrictions too quickly. "We need a very cautious approach because any premature easing of social distancing could bring irreversible consequences, and have to ponder deeply about when and how we switch to the new system," Sye-kyun added. ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()