Coronavirus Still A Mystery To Doctors As Reports Say Recovered Patients May Be Testing Positive Again

A new study out of South Korea claims recovered COVID-19 patients are testing positive for the virus again, according to a report by NPR.

Dr. Dale Bratzler with OU Medicine said there is still a great deal not known about the disease.

He said there are several different theories that could explain a positive test after a full recovery.

“We know there are more than one strain of this particular coronavirus that are circulating,” Bratzler said.

It's still unknown if this virus is like the flu with multiple different strains.

Patients could also come back with a false positive or a false negative.

"No test is perfect," Bratzler said.

Research from China also shows COVID-19 testing could be up to 30% inaccurate.

“There's a lot of reports that these tests are coming back negative even when the patient is infected,” Bratzler said.

Sampling errors are another problem.

"Did you really get a good swab with genetic material on it? How did you extract the virus from the swab?” Bratzler said.

The recovered patient could have dead virus circulating through their system.

"The PCR test that we do detects genetic components of the virus so it could be another one that comes back positive, but's actually a false positive,” Bratzler said.

Doctors say what's most concerning is it's still unclear if a patient can be reinfected with COVID-19.