‘Premature’ to estimate number of recovered COVID-19 patients — epidemiological committee

AMMAN —  It would be “premature” to talk about the number of patients in Jordan who have recovered from the novel coronavirus, said Spokesperson for the National Epidemiological Committee Nazir Obaidat.

On Wednesday, Obaidat stated that patients under quarantine at Prince Hamzah Hospital in Amman and King Abdullah Hospital in Irbid have tested negative, but he stressed that “this result alone is not conclusive and does not reflect how many patients have recovered from the virus”.

He added that there are several criteria that must be met in order to determine whether a person has been conclusively cleared of the virus, adding that a second laboratory test should be run at least 48 hours after the initial examination before any recovery can be reported.

“If the result of the second test is also negative, then each patient undergoes an accurate CT scan of the chest. If there are no clinically alarming changes in the chest, then the patient can be deemed as having recovered from the virus,” Obaidat said.

He stressed that the committee can announce numbers of recovered cases only after the three results are confirmed.