By IANS

SEOUL: Fifty-one people in South Korea, who recovered after contracting COVID-19, have tested positive again, but the results might have been due to the reactivation of the novel coronavirus, health authorities here said on Monday.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said the people from Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang province, the epicentres of the pandemic in South Korea, tested positive for the virus after they were released from quarantine, rports Yonhap News Agency.

KCDC Director-General Jeong Eun-kyeong said the virus was highly likely to have been reactivated, instead of the people being reinfected, as they tested positive again in a relatively short time after being released from quarantine.

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The health authorities said a team of investigators has been sent to Daegu to conduct an epidemiological investigation into the cases.

Meanwhile, Kim Tae-kyung, an infectious disease expert at Soonchunhyang University Hospital, said: "Patients who retested positive are people in which the virus was reactivated or who relapsed."

A COVID-19 patient is deemed fully recovered after showing negative results for two tests performed with a 24-hour interval.

The country recorded fewer than 50 new cases of the novel coronavirus Monday, bringing the nation's total infections to 10,284, reports Yonhap News Agency.

It marked the lowest daily increase since late February.

The nation's death toll rose by three to 186, while more than 130 recovered from the virus Sunday, raising the total number of cured people to 6,598, according to the KCDC.