Patients who have recovered from the coronavirus in China and Canada were found to still have traces of the virus.

Traces of virus found in nose and throat swabs

A Chinese respiratory disease expert, Zhao Jianping, said that cases of recovered patients in China were tested for Covid-19 after recovery, South China Morning Post reported.

Nucleic acid tests showed that recovered patients still contained trace of the virus.

Similarly, in Canada, a couple who had recovered from the coronavirus continued to show traces of Covid-19 when nose and throat swabs were taken from them.

Zhao mentioned that while there is a drop in daily recorded cases of the Covid-19 in China, he warns that the figure might go up again.

Zhao warned about the implications of this finding, according to SCMP.

He said: “We also have such cases. This is dangerous. Where do you put these patients? You can't send them home because they might infect others, but you can't put them in hospital as resources are stretched.”

Zhao's concern with the rate of infection appears warranted.

He pointed out that there were 27 patients when his team first went to a Wuhan hospital designated to treat infected people on Dec. 30.

The number then increased on January 10 with infections among medical workers.

“The number of patients has jumped from 27 to 70,000. It is highly contagious,” he said.

Number of newly discharged patients in China is now over 2,000

According to China’s National Health Commission, 2,019 newly discharged patients were sent home yesterday.

This brings the total number of discharged patients in China to 18,264.

Top photo by Macau Photo Agency/ Unsplash