Geneva: A senior expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that although there are some cases suggesting that an individual may have been re-infected with COVID-19, it’s still not confirmed.
Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on COVID-19 response at the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told a virtual press conference on Thursday that some people can have PCR (polymerase chain reaction) positivity for many weeks, not just days, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are infectious for that long, Xinhua news agency reported.
According to the WHO expert, false positivity or false negativity may also lead to the result that an individual is tested positive again, but that should not be viewed as re-infection.
What we ideally would like is to look at sequencing. If the virus can be isolated, if sequencing can be done, so we can look and see if somebody has been re-infected, she said.
Meanehile, a senior expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that it is currently in conversation with Russia to get additional information about the COVID-19 vaccine that Russia will start production soon.
Dr Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to WHO’s director-general, told a press conference on Thursday that WHO does not have sufficient information at this point to make a judgment on the Russian vaccine, Xinhua news agency reported.
He told reporters that with the coordination of WHO, there are altogether nine vaccine candidates that are going through Phase 2 or 3 trials, but the Russian vaccine is not one of them.