South Korea reported that 51 coronavirus patients' infections went away then 'reactivated' But it's unlikely the virus has a dormancy period.

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• The South Korean CDC reported that 51 patients recovered from the coronavirus, tested negative, then positive again within a relatively short time.
• Jeong Eun-kyeong, the agency's director-general, said that virus may have "reactivated" in the patients after going dormant. 
• However, experts say that's unlikely. Only certain types of viruses, such as HIV and herpes, go through periods of latency periods and reactivation.
• It's more likely that the virus hadn't fully been cleared from a patient's system.
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South Korea reported this week that 51 patients who had recovered from the coronavirus and tested negative later tested positive again.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, director-general of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a briefing on Monday that the virus may have "reactivated" in those patients after going dormant. He said tests were conducted within a "relatively short time" after the patients were cleared, so it's unlikely they got reinfected.

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