A 53-year-old man, known to have HTN, DM, and end-stage renal disease (ESRD), presented with fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Physical examination revealed a tired-looking man with mild abdominal tenderness but was otherwise unremarkable. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan was performed to rule out causes of acute abdomen. It showed no abdominal pathology but numerous bilateral lungs’ basal patchy consolidations and ground-glass opacities. Subsequently, nasopharyngeal PCR confirmed COVID-19. He received the treatment guided by the local protocol, and he became symptom-free and was discharged home following negative swab PCR after 28 days. Eighteen days later, he again presented with fever, chest pain, and mild dyspnea. The chest X-ray showed bilateral lung infiltrates increasing compared with the previous Images. The initial test for COVID-19 was inconclusive; then, the repeat test was positive 2 days after the second hospital admission. He was restarted on the treatment protocol and continued to improve with an unremarkable hospital stay. The repeated test was negative after 1 week from the second presentation. The patient had 48 days elapsing from the first positive PCR result until the last positive sample.
A previously healthy 46-year-old man presented with a 7-day history of fever, dry cough, and mild dyspnea. On examination, he was febrile, mildly tachypneic, tachycardic, but maintained oxygen saturation on room air. His chest X-ray revealed consolidation involving the left mid and lower zones. SARS-CoV-2 PCR tested positive, and he was started on COVID-19 management for pneumonia following local protocols. The repeated PCR tests were persistently positive for 47 days. The patient was discharged home, asymptomatic after negative PCR.