After symptoms end, can coronavirus spread again?

New Delhi, Mar 30: A new study has found that some COVID-19 patients may be capable of transmitting the virus even after all symptoms of the disease disappear. The study also recommends that the quarantine period for seemingly cured people could be extended to avoid any possibility of the infection.

The study was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine by researchers from China and the US. They examined patients treated at the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing between January 28 and February 9.

Those patients studied had a median age of 35.5 and were mild COVID-19 cases. The researchers collected throat swab samples from the patients discharged after their recovery and confirmation of negative vital status by two consecutive polymerase chain reaction tests.

It was unclear whether similar results would hold for more vulnerable patients such as the elderly, those suppressed with immune systems and patients on immunosuppressive therapies, the study noted. It also called for more research.