China has recently experienced a new rise in positive cases of patients (14%) who previously recovered from Covid-19. Is it possible that Covid-19 accumulate in the lymphatic reservoir resulting in subsequent infections?
Remember that the PCR testing method that has often been used for the test has a very underwhelming accuracy rate. One case study I read had a 50 year old Japanese woman who was tested four times with the PCR swab during the course of her illness, which was very clearly COVID-19 during the entire treatment, and 4 of the 5 tests came back as false negatives. This low testing accuracy is the likely reason behind the 'reinfections', which South Korea has also been reporting.
Thank you Michael! Do you know or have an idea why this test has such a low accuracy rate?
Balamane
I believe that it has to do with 1.) The potential for asymptomatic transmission before the virus is detectable, which is related to 2.) The fact that detectable RNA is not present in the patient until fairly late in the disease, and 3.) The initial testing method was a throat swab. We've now progressed to very deep, relatively painful nasal swabbing to try to counter some of these drawbacks. I'll do some digging later when I have a chance for more on this.