'Covid-19 Patients Can Be Discharged After 10 Days'

Local health authorities decided on Wednesday that coronavirus patients who’ve either recovered or never fell ill can be discharged from hospital as early as ten days from the time they developed symptoms, or tested positive for the virus.

Experts from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) explained that a review of the latest scientific literature shows that the viral load of confirmed patients peaks early – around when they start developing symptoms.

The amount of viruses patients carry, the experts say, gradually decreases over time after staying at a relatively high level in the first week of illness.

The CHP’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (SCEZD) concluded after a meeting on Wednesday that patients who’re no longer sick can be released from isolation ten days after the onset of symptoms if they've recovered, with no more fever.

They must also have two samples taken 24 hours apart both testing negative for the coronavirus – or test positive for antibodies for the virus.

Asymptomatic patients who fulfill the same criteria can go ten days after their first positive test.

The experts said studies show that while such discharged patients may still have remnants of the virus’ RNA for an extended period of time, scientists are unable to actually grow any viruses from any samples – meaning they wouldn’t actually be able to infect anyone.

This comes as Hong Kong reported no new local Covid-19 cases for the 17th consecutive day on Wednesday, with the total number of cases remaining at 1,040 with four fatalities. Only 105 Covid-19 patients remain in hospital.