In a fresh study, scientists have discovered that coronavirus cannot be contracted twice and the second positive results detected earlier were actually a result of faulty tests.

The fresh discovery has been made by South Korean scientists, who authoritatively said that a coronavirus patient cannot relapse after recovering from it.

South Korea’s Central Clinical Committee For Emerging Disease Control said positive test results on people who had recovered from the disease were the result of ‘fragments’ of the virus lingering in their bodies, but with no power to make them ill or to infect others.

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The news had triggered panic, after 10 percent of China’s patients had reportedly contracted virus again after getting discharged from hospital. This had threatened the governments of a never-ending cycle of infection and reinfection, however, the latest study nullifies it.

Oh Myoung-don, the head of the committee, said that the later positive results were caused by shortcomings in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that detects the virus’s genetic information, or RNA, in samples taken from patients.

“It is more likely that those who tested positive again picked up virus RNA that has already been inactivated.”

The worldwide death toll from coronavirus pandemic has risen to 239,500 while over 3.4 million cases have been registered.

According to latest data, over one million patients have recovered from the pandemic so far.

In United States, death toll from the pandemic now stands at 65,700 with over one million infections from the virus.

Italy is the second worst-hit country in terms of deaths with 28,000 casualties and 207,000 infections, followed by UK with over 27,500 deaths and more than 177,000 infections.