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Fitness & Health

27th Feb 2020

Japanese woman tests positive for coronavirus for the second time

Alan Loughnane

Coronavirus reinfecting

She had initially recovered and tested negative for the virus.

A woman working as a tour bus guide in Japan has tested positive for coronavirus for a second time in what experts believe is the first person in the country to do so.

The woman is believed to have tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. She had previously contracted the virus on 29 January before being discharged from hospital on 1 February after recovering and testing negative.

However, midway through February she presented to the doctor again with throat and chest pain. When she was tested for the virus a week later, she tested positive again.

Japanese media reported the health ministry confirmed the case was the first time in the country a patient had tested positive for the virus after being released from hospital.

Some cases of second positive tests have also been reported in China.

Three people have died in Japan with 186 cases being reported. These cases do not include the 704 cases and four deaths reported from the Covid-19 outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship which was quarantined off the coast of Tokyo.

The outbreak has spread rapidly and widely since it was first identified in China, infecting about 80,000 people globally and killing nearly 2,800. The vast majority of these deaths and infections have occurred in mainland China.

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