It appears we are not out of the woods yet, not even halfway through the woods. In fact, we may be going backward. Some countries have eased up on lockdowns and social distancing rules a little too soon.
According to officials, more than 100 people in South Korea who had previously recovered from coronavirus have tested positive for a second time.
The killer virus that caused a global pandemic has “reactivated” in a total of 116 patients so far, with 48 of them in South Korea’s coronavirus ground zero, Daegu.
The director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jeong-Eun-kyeong, said that the patients had not simply become reinfected but that it had remained dormant in them and reactivated.
Officials from the country reported last week that there were 51 cases of patients testing positive even after having been cleared of the virus.
However, Jeong noted that thankfully there have been no cases of the relapsed patients spreading the virus to anyone else they had come into contact with.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun reported that the government would soon be looking into lifting some of the stay-at-home guidelines, which are still in effect until at least April 19. This new turn of events could cause that date to be extended.
The Prime Minister said, “We need a very cautious approach because any premature easing of social distancing could bring irreversible consequences, and have to ponder deeply about when and how we switch to the new system.”
Officials from South Korea have confirmed more than 10,500 COVID-19 cases, with over 7,400 being cleared of the virus.
This new information could put us right back at square one if we are not careful. Lifting the stay-at-home guidelines to soon could set off a second wave of the virus and I don’t think people or the economy could handle a situation that catastrophic.
