India’s first Covid patient tests positive again

The student from Kerala first tested positive in January last year when she returned to India from China

File: Heath officials carry medical waste out of an isolation ward of a hospital in Kochi, Kerala on 4 February, 2020 (AFP via Getty Images)

A medical student from the Indian state of Kerala, who was the first in India to test positive for Covid-19, has been infected with the virus again, officials said.

The 20-year-old student, from Kerala’s Thrissur district, tested positive for a second time when she took the RT-PCR test before a flight to India’s national capital Delhi.

She told The New Indian Express: “The antigen test was negative but the RT-PCR came back positive. I only have mild symptoms and am currently under home isolation.”

Thrissur district medical officer Dr KJ Reena said that none of the student’s family members have tested positive so far. Dr Reena also said that there have been instances in which people have tested positive for a second time, even among health workers, and it’s nothing new.

The student has not been vaccinated yet, reports said.

She first tested positive in January last year when she returned to India from China where she was studying in Wuhan. She was discharged from the hospital in February after nearly three weeks of treatment.

Other cases of reinfections have been reported from India, but there is no official data available so far.

Researchers from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology found that more than 10 per cent of the people who had Covid-19 were likely exposed to the virus again in April in national capital Delhi, according to Hindustan Times.

India’s Covid-19 cases have declined in recent weeks as the second wave of the pandemic abates. The country reported 32,906 new infections and 2,020 new deaths in the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning. But experts have warned that a third wave of the pandemic is “imminent” and can come as early as next month.