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A doctor has expressed fears that a new coronavirus strain is emerging after reports surfaced from South Korea that recovered patients have tested positive again for Covid-19.

Officials from the country said at least 116 people who initially recovered from the infection tested positive for the killer disease days later.

The unnerving news was the topic of conversation on Fox News yesterday, who spoke to medical contributor Dr Janette Nesheiwat.

“There could be several different things going on here,” she said.

“It could be that it was a ‘false negative’ (when they were told they had recovered from the virus).

“Maybe when whoever was conducting the nasal swab, for example, they didn’t get enough specimen which means they will get a ‘false negative’.”

(Image: GETTY)

“The other thing is that, sadly, it may never have exited the body in the first place.

“And then, finally, I hope this isn’t the case but could it be another strain that is emerging?

“The good thing is that I’m not seeing it I’m not seeing it in a lot of my patients.”

While it may sound scary having a “new strain” of the disease, it is not wholly unusual.

Scientists have already found three variations of coronavirus across the world since its outbreak in Wuhan, China.

The World Health Organisation has said it is looking into reports of the patients testing positive again.

“We are closely liaising with our clinical experts and working hard to get more information on those individual cases,” they said in a brief statement.

“It is important to make sure that when samples are collected for testing on suspected patients, procedures are followed properly.”

More than 2 million people have now been infected by coronavirus worldwide, according to the latest figures from The John Hopkins University.

In the UK, there have been 88,621 confirmed cases with 11,329 people tragically dying.

But the real death toll is believed to be 15% higher given that NHS figures only account for hospital deaths and not fatalities in care homes and the wider community.