2nd coronavirus patient fully recovered; to leave hospital this week
The National Medical Center. Korea Times file
By Park Si-soo
A man, 55, who was South Korea's second case of coronavirus, has “recovered fully” and will leave hospital “this week,” a doctor supervising his treatment at the National Medical Center said.
Hospital President Chung Gi-hyun announced this Wednesday.
He said the patient tested negative for the infectious virus on Monday.
“From a medical perspective, he is now recovered fully,” Chung said. “His departure from the hospital hinges on non-medical issues such as post-release management by health authorities.”
The man ― who returned from his company in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 22 ― has been quarantined at the hospital since Jan. 24 after testing positive for coronavirus.
The doctor said he had been treated with a cocktail of flu and HIV drugs, an alternative way to fight the virus with no medicine with proven efficacy existing. A coronavirus patient in Thailand recovered after receiving this treatment, according to
.
Chung said it is still too early to say the approach can be applied to all cases.
“We have only a limited number of cases,” he said. “So it's hard to say at the moment the combination is really helpful in killing the virus.”