There is a possibility of relapse after Omicron conversion, usually related to residual virus, immunocompromise, test error, and re-infection.
1. Viral residue: after treatment of OCV pneumonia, a very small amount of OCV may remain in the alveolar tissues of the patient, and these small amounts of OCV may replicate again after discharge from the hospital, thus presenting a positive result when the nasopharyngeal and pharyngeal swabs are reexamined.
2. Low immunity: If the patient has diabetes, hypertension and other underlying diseases, it may cause the patient’s immune function to be abnormal, which may result in the proliferation of residual virus after discharge from the hospital and lead to the resurgence of positive results.
3. Test error: Both antigen and nucleic acid tests of the new coronavirus may show false negatives, which may lead to a repositive positive result when the test is repeated.
4. Reinfection: After patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia are cured, they are usually resistant to this type of virus, but if the virus mutates, they may become infected again, which may lead to re-positive results.
At present, after patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia are discharged from the hospital, they need to go to designated hospitals for isolation and observation, and the details are subject to the policy of the local CDC, during which they need to undergo nucleic acid testing for several times, and the probability of re-positive is generally low.
Tip: “New coronavirus pneumonia” and “new coronavirus pneumonia” mentioned in this article were renamed to “new coronavirus infection” on December 26, 2022, as announced by the National Health Commission.