India's first Covid-19 patient reinfected with virus

India's first Covid-19 patient—a woman medico -- has tested positive again for the virus more than a year after recovering from the first bout of the disease in the southern state of Kerala, state health authorities said today.

"She is reinfected with Covid-19. Her RT-PCR is positive, the antigen test is negative. She is asymptomatic," reports our New Delhi correspondent quoting Thrissur District Medical Officer K J Reena.

Her samples were tested as she was preparing to go to New Delhi for study purposes. Then the RT-PCR result turned out to be positive, she said.

The patient is now at home and "she is OK," the doctor said.

On January 30, 2020, the third-year medical student from Wuhan University tested positive for coronavirus, becoming India's first Covid-19 patient, days after she had returned home following semester holidays.

After nearly three weeks of treatment at the Thrissur Medical College Hospital, she had tested negative twice for the virus, confirming her recovery, and was discharged on February 20, 2020.

Even while most parts of India are reporting a sharp decline in fresh Covid cases for the last few weeks, Kerala is showing a high caseload.

Meanwhile, two more persons, including a woman, tested positive for the Zika virus in Kerala today, taking the total number of infections in the state to 21, state Health Minister Veena George said.