(QCOSTARICA) The Ministry of Health is investigating an “atypical case” of coronavirus in Costa Rica, where a patient tested positive for the first time for covid-19 on March 27, was discharged and who was positive again, continuing to suffer from a lack of smell and taste.
“There is an important fact and that is that this person never regained the sense of smell and taste. Those were two symptoms that manifested from the beginning of the diagnosis and have remained until today,” explained the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas.
According to a timeline provided by the Ministry of Health, the person tested positive for the first time on March 27. On April 9 a sample was taken to see the evolution and it was negative; however, a new sample, 24 hours later, was positive.
On April 14, a new sampling was performed and it was negative; 24 hours later it was positive again.
On April 21 and April 22, both tests were negative, the patient was declared recovered.
However, the patient maintained a loss of smell and taste and presented a fever. On May 14, a new test performed and it was positive.
“As of April 21 and 22, samples are taken and both are negative. On May 14 this person has a fever and is tested and it is positive,” said the Minister of Health.
The Minister said that it is unlikely that it is a new contagion, but that it could be due to an error in taking the samples.
The Minister assured that they will remain cautious with the case and will carry out all possible examinations to determine what happened to the patient, including complementary tests and tracking of the people who participated in the taking and processing of the two tests that gave negative one month ago.
“There is a good chance that it is not due to infection again; however, this is under investigation because there may be some condition in the taking of the sample, in the processing, and that will be under study and everything we can gather at the evidence level to see how we can guide the classification of this atypical case,” said Salas.
