10 per cent of Wuhan patients test positive again

Beijing: About 3 to 10 per cent of recovered coronavirus patients in China have tested positive again after being discharged from the hospital.

Doctors from Tongji hospital on the frontlines of the outbreak in Wuhan -- where the virus emerged -- told state broadcaster CCTV that they have found no evidence that these patients who again tested positive became infectious, based on close observations of their family members and laboratory tests.

The Chinese mainland, where the disease first emerged last December, has discharged over 90 per cent of its infected patients and around 4,300 confirmed patients are still receiving treatment in hospitals.

The country has reported at least 81,000 cases and more than 3,200 deaths, but most of the new cases have been imported. The hospital confirmed that five of 147 patients -- only over 3 to five per cent -- tested positive again in nucleic acid tests, according to state broadcaster CCTV."So far there is no evidence to suggest that they are infectious," said Wang Wei, the hospital's president.

He said the five patients who tested positive again did not have any symptoms and none of their close contacts had been infected.

Researchers around the world are trying to determine whether recovered patients can still infect people with the coronavirus that causes the disease and if they have developed antibodies offering them immunity to the disease.

Meanwhile, other quarantine facilities in Wuhan have seen about 5 to 10% of their recovered patients test positive again.