• Zhihai Chen, Wen Xie, Ziruo Ge, Yajie Wang, Hong Zhao, Jingjing Wang, Yanli Xu, Wei Zhang, Meihua Song, Shuping Cui, Xiankun Wang, and Calvin Q Pan.
• Center of Infectious Diseases, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, PR China.
• J Infect Public Health. 2021 May 1; 14 (5): 620-627.

IntroductionMany individuals test positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA after recovering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but the incidence of reactivation is unknown. We, therefore, estimated the incidence of reactivation among individuals who had recovered from COVID-19 and determined its predictors.MethodsIn this retrospective cohort study, patients with COVID-19 were followed up for at least 14 days after two consecutive negative SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test results obtained ≥24 h apart, and the frequency of SARS-CoV-2 reactivation was assessed.ResultsOf the 109 patients, 29 (27%) experienced reactivation, and seven (24%) of these were symptomatic. The mean period for the real-time PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 from negative to positive results was 17 days. Compared with patients without reactivation, those with reactivation were significantly younger and more likely to have a lymphocyte count of <1500/μL (odds ratio [OR]: 0.34, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.12-0.94) and two or fewer symptoms (OR: 0.20, 95% CI: 0.07-0.55) during the initial episode.ConclusionRisk-stratified surveillance should be conducted among patients who have recovered from COVID-19.Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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