The second patient confirmed to have the novel coronavirus in South Korea has seen most of his symptoms subside and is looking forward to leaving the hospital. With over 17,000 patients worldwide, including South Korea, hundreds of these patients have either died or fully recovered, and their cases have brought the symptoms, infectivity and treatment of the novel coronavirus into sight.

The South Korean government is revising its case descriptions for new guidelines on people who have come in contact with a victim and people suffering similar symptoms based on the treatment of these patients.

On February 3, Jung Eun-kyeong, director of the Central Quarantine Headquarters at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “Patient no. 2 has been cured of all symptoms and the two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests came back negative (meaning no virus).” She added, “We are monitoring his conditions and reviewing his release from the hospital.”

Based on current standards, if two PCR tests conducted 24 hours apart both show negative results, the patient can be released from the hospital. The second patient confirmed to have the novel coronavirus has passed both tests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will review the case to see if there are any problems in applying the present standard and release the second patient from the hospital.

In South Korea, fifteen patients have been confirmed to have contracted the virus over a period of fifteen days since the first case was confirmed on January 20. All fifteen patients have been receiving treatment in the hospital and all are in stable condition.

This day, the center explained the characteristics of the virus revealed in the process of treating the confirmed cases. Jung said, “Most of the Korean cases were discovered in the early stage of the virus, and according to the treatment in the hospital, they first showed symptoms of coughing, which slowly progressed to pneumonia.” She further elaborated, “In some cases, the lesions, which were not visible in the X-rays, were confirmed in a CT scan.” She added, “The clinical physician particularly mentioned that in some cases the symptoms described by the patients were weaker than the severity of the disease shown in X-rays and lung CTs.”

The government also revealed some of the treatment for the novel coronavirus. Jung said, “Basically, we are focusing on treating the symptoms, and if the pneumonia is severe, we are administering oxygen or providing respirators.” “We are administering antibiotics known to be effective against the novel coronavirus in overseas treatments to prevent secondary infections (depending on the patient’s need),” she explained and added, “The Korean Society of Infectious Diseases is reviewing domestic and international cases as well as overseas literature to create a ‘clinical treatment guideline’ that can be applied to the treatment of the novel coronavirus in the field.”

Nearly a month has passed since the spread of the novel coronavirus in and outside China, and over 17,000 patients have been infected worldwide. The guidelines on the treatment of the virus are changing according to the channels of infection, symptoms, and treatments of the patients identified in each country.

This day, the center also acknowledged that the virus could be infected without symptoms, which it had previously claimed “lacked grounds.” Jung said, “Reports from Germany and other countries suggest the possibility,” and explained, “If the virus can be infected without symptoms, banning entry into the country would be the most crucial measure, which is why the government is planning to gradually expand it (increasing the areas from which entry would be banned).”

■ Government recognizes infection without symptoms, once deemed groundless: Frontline hospitals to provide real-time diagnosis

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to partially revise its “guidelines on the response to the novel coronavirus” based on newly identified information on the infectivity of the virus and begin applying the new guidelines on February 4. They will stop separating the people who have come in contact with a confirmed patient into “casual contact” and “close contact,” and put all cases of “contact” in mandatory isolation in their homes. The center will also reconsider its “case descriptions,” which act as a standard for determining people with symptoms and plan to release the results within this week.

The center also announced the results of additional epidemiological surveys of confirmed patients that have been conducted till this day. Patients number 3, 7, 8 and 15 had all visited The Place, the Korean section at the Wuhan International Fashion Center. Jung stressed, “Anyone who worked at or visited The Place in Wuhan within the past fourteen days and believes he or she may be infected, please report to the health authorities.”

This day, the center further released the routes and progress of the epidemiological surveys of patients number 14 and 15. Patient no. 14 was a family member of patient no. 12 and first showed symptoms at around 10 p.m. on January 29. Her trajectory after that was the same as patient no. 12. The two took a taxi to visit a medical center, a “screening” clinic at the Bucheon Health Center, and then visited a large supermarket in Bucheon (E-mart Bucheon store) on January 30. The two remained at home the following two days and on February 2 were confirmed to have contracted the virus. They were then transported and admitted to Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. Patient no. 15 visited a screening clinic at the local health center while under quarantine on February 1. The next day, the clinic confirmed his diagnosis and transported him to the Armed Forces Capital Hospital where he is receiving treatment. As of 2 p.m. on February 3, authorities confirmed that patient no. 15 had come in contact with twelve people.

At a Army unit, Private A was confirmed to have taken the same elevator as with patient no. 12 when he visited a resort in Gangneung with his parents on January 23. He was soon quarantined, but test results came back negative. The Ministry of National Defense said, “We transported and isolated a total of eight soldiers including Private A and his fellow soldiers to the Armed Forces Hospital,” and added, “We have restricted all leaves, including day and overnight leaves, and the commute of officers and soldiers who belong to the same regiment as Private A.” Although the test results for the private came back negative, they continued to keep him in isolation.

Meanwhile, this day, the central emergency response headquarters announced that the test results of all 333 Koreans who entered the country on the second special flight from Wuhan came back negative. Of the 333, seven had entered with symptoms and 326 had entered the facilities in Korea without any symptoms, but their test results were all negative. Thus, except for one confirmed patient, the test results of 700 of the total 701 people who entered the country from Wuhan on the first two flights were negative.

The 45 people who came in contact with the first confirmed patient have been released from isolation as of midnight February 3. If nothing special happens, the 75 people who came in contact with patient no. 2 are expected to be released on February 7.