S. Korea sees no infection risk from relapse cases

SEOUL, May 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korean health authorities said Monday they will suspend tight quarantine measures for coronavirus patients who re-tested for COVID-19 as they did not find any evidence that such patients pose the risk of infecting others.

Coronavirus relapse cases have been a headache for public health authorities here in their battle against the pandemic. So far, the country has reported 447 such cases.

Local health experts said last month that traces of inactivated virus fragments appear to have been detected in such people, refuting theories of reactivation or reinfection of the virus.

"There have been no secondary infections from people who have contacted the relapsed patients so far," Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, said in a briefing. "We have not found evidence that those cases are contagious."

sooyeon@yna.co.kr
(END)