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Rajesh Gandhi, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "That is not surprising because it sometimes takes weeks or even longer for all symptoms of COVID-19 to completely resolve," says Dr. For more serious cases, the CDC recommends up to 20 days of isolation.Ĭonley's letter noted that the president's test results showed decreasing viral loads, and increasing " cycle threshold times" - which is often seen in recovering patients, Boucher says.Ĭonley also indicated that Trump had been fever-free for "well over 24 hours," and all of his symptoms had "improved" - implying that Trump still does have some symptoms of the virus. That's the basis of the CDC's recommendation that patients with mild cases self-isolate for 10 days after symptoms begin. Studies show that a patient's contagious period spans from 1-2 days before onset of symptoms, until 7-8 days after. "Testing positive for viral particles does not imply infectiousness." "This is the basis of the CDC's time-based removal from isolation," Boucher says. Helen Boucher, chief of the infectious diseases department at Tufts Medical Center. Some level of positive test results can persist for many weeks following infection, even if a person can no longer transmit SARS-CoV-2, says Dr. In fact, infectious disease doctors tell NPR, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer recommends using test results to determine whether it's safe for a patient to stop self-isolating. So that's why many of us have gotten away from the testing strategy in mild to moderate patients, because it puts you in this conundrum, and you can't convince people."
That's sometimes hard to tell family members, it's hard to tell employers. "I think it's hard sometimes, even with my patients, when I explain: 'Yes, your test is still positive, but no, you're not contagious anymore,' " Adalja added.
Live Updates: Trump Tests Positive For Coronavirus 'Reckless': Doctors Question Trump Resuming Activities So Quickly There may be "remnants of coronaviral debris" present, but "that does not correlate with, or confer, infectiousness or contagiousness to other people." "He's recovered from COVID-19," Adalja says. "It makes sense to me because I do this all this time."Īdalja, who has treated several dozen coronavirus patients, says he wouldn't characterize the president as still having coronavirus. "It's not surprising to me that people are having difficulty interpreting the letter," Adalja tells NPR. So does the president have coronavirus or not? Sean Conley, the physician to the president, said Saturday that the president was "no longer a transmission risk to others," and that there was "no longer evidence of actively replicating virus." But in reporting on the letter, several media outlets noted that Conley didn't say the president had tested negative for COVID-19, raising concern among some experts. "It becomes much harder to explain to people, well why is the test positive when you're saying he's not contagious? It's because, that far out, it's not viable virus."ĭr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center of Health Security. "We try to avoid that question," says Dr. Several health experts told NPR that based on what Trump's doctors have said about Trump's coronavirus experience, he's likely no longer contagious.Īsk an infectious disease doctor whether the president still has coronavirus, and you quickly realize that "having" the virus is a concept that exists more among laypeople than doctors. President Trump addressed a rally on Saturday, nine days after he tested positive for the coronavirus.