Coronavirus can strike twice as man tests positive again four months on

Survivors of coronavirus can catch the potentially deadly virus again, scientists say.

Survivors of coronavirus can catch the potentially deadly virus again, scientists say, as a "young and healthy" man was found to have been reinfected. The first case of someone being reinfected with coronavirus has been reported by researchers after a study at the University of Hong Kong's (HKU) department of microbiology. It says that an "apparently young and healthy patient had a second episode of COVID-19 infection which was diagnosed 4.5 months after the first episode". The scientists say the case illustrates that reinfection can occur a few months after recovery from the first infection.

The findings indicate the disease, which has killed more than 800,000 people worldwide, will continue to spread among the global population despite herd immunity, they said. The 33-year-old male was cleared of COVID-19 and discharged from a hospital in April, but tested positive again after returning from Spain via the UK on August 15. The patient had appeared to be previously healthy, researchers said in the paper, which was accepted by the international medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. He was found to have contracted a different coronavirus strain from the one he had previously contracted and remained asymptomatic for the second infection.