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| The National Medical Center. Korea Times file |
By Park Si-soo
A man, 55, who was South Korea's second case of coronavirus, has "recovered fully" and will leave hospital "this week," a doctor supervising his treatment at the National Medical Center said.
Hospital President Chung Gi-hyun announced this Wednesday.
He said the patient tested negative for the infectious virus on Monday.
"From a medical perspective, he is now recovered fully," Chung said. "His departure from the hospital hinges on non-medical issues such as post-release management by health authorities."
The man ― who returned from his company in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 22 ― has been quarantined at the hospital since Jan. 24 after testing positive for coronavirus.
The doctor said he had been treated with a cocktail of flu and HIV drugs, an alternative way to fight the virus with no medicine with proven efficacy existing. A coronavirus patient in Thailand recovered after receiving this treatment, according to Reuters.
Chung said it is still too early to say the approach can be applied to all cases.
"We have only a limited number of cases," he said. "So it's hard to say at the moment the combination is really helpful in killing the virus."
