Healed COVID-19 cases who test positive 'almost not contagious': CECC

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) Recovered COVID-19 patients who test positive again for the disease are "almost not contagious" due to the low level of the virus in their bodies and thus pose little threat to the community, a Taiwanese epidemiologist said Tuesday.

Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳), an advisor to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), gave that assessment when asked at a daily press briefing how many COVID-19 patients had tested positive again after being discharged and if they were still infectious and could spread the disease.

Chang said that among Taiwan's 438 confirmed COVID-19 cases, there have been four cases in which they were initially discharged after testing negative for the disease three times but then returned to the hospital with renewed symptoms and were tested again.

The results for some of the four were sometimes negative and sometimes positive, making it very difficult for medical experts to determine if they should be treated again for the disease, he said.

Doctors eventually considered the patients COVID-19 positive and isolated and treated the patients again as a precaution, Chang said.

Read more: Focus Taiwan