More than 100 South Koreans who recovered test positive for coronavirus again

A group of people wearing face masks amid concerns over the COVID-19 novel coronavirus walk along a street in Seoul on April 12, 2020.(ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

At least 116 people in South Korea who were previously cleared of coronavirus have tested positive again, increasing fears of a second wave of infections in the country.

Overall, South Korea reported only 25 new cases of coronavirus on Monday. The country has reported 10,537 cases and 217 deaths.

Experts said it didn’t necessarily mean that people had been reinfected and it is possible that faulty tests cleared the people originally, or the virus could stay in people’s systems longer than previously thought.

“I think what is very, very unlikely is that these people are being reinfected by other people,” Curtin University professor of infectious disease epidemiology Archie Clements told Al Jazeera. “There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that there is quite a strong immune response to infection with coronavirus, and that should protect people from infection for a period of time. What’s not currently known is for how long.”

South Korea has been praised for its response to the coronavirus outbreak, including widespread testing. While experts have encouraged the country’s officials to keep certain restrictions in place, others have called for South Korea to loosen various public health guidelines.

“We need a very cautious approach because any premature easing of social distancing could bring irreversible consequences, and have to ponder deeply about when and how we switch to the new system,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said.