Fifty-one people who recovered from coronavirus in South Korea have tested positive again – raising fears the virus can be reactivated.

The patients – from the country’s worst-hit City, Daegu – were put in quarantine after being diagnosed with the virus, then tested positive again days after being released.

Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said the virus was likely ‘reactivated’, rather than patients becoming re-infected.

Scientists at the Government-run health body believe the virus may lay dormant at undetectable levels in human cells.

They say that for unknown reasons the viral particles can then be reactivated and start attacking the lungs once more.

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