Israeli corona patient, 86, recovers only to become reinfected

An 86-year-old patient beat the virus only to catch it again, raising questions about the body’s ability to develop immunity to the new disease.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

An 86-year-old Israel man was re-hospitalized in the city of Tiberias after coming down with a second case of coronavirus, Israel news site N12 reports on Thursday.

His case is serious and he has been anesthetized and intubated, according to the report.

The man, who suffers from serious background illnesses, was released from the same hospital six days ago after twice testing negative for the disease.

After suffering serious problems breathing, he was returned to the hospital from the elderly care center where he lived.

“There have been similar incidents in the world,” the medical team at Baruch Padeh Medical Center said. “Right now, in light of the fact that this is a disease being studied, we have no explanation. We know that there was no testing malfunction, given that two tests were performed within a 24-hour interval as required and according to all instructions.”

New disturbing facts continue to be learned about Covid-19, the virus that has infected 2.5 million worldwide and killed 183,424. Recently, the virus was found to survive in the eye. Tests revealed a Chinese woman cleared of the disease was found to have the virus reemerge in her eye a day later.

The South China Morning Post reports that a Peking University respiratory specialist says he contracted COVID-19 while treating patients without eye protection. He says his left eye became inflamed and afterwards he developed respiratory symptoms.

Trends in Israel have been positive over the last few days. On Thursday, the Health Ministry released its most recent numbers, indicating an 8.1 percent drop in serious cases and a 3.6 percent drop in cases on ventilators.