Communist China’s official numbers are notoriously untrustworthy, but outside observers piecing together reports from inside the People’s Republic have detected a disturbingly high number of coronavirus patients released from quarantine only to test positive again days or weeks later.

The most cynical interpretation of this phenomenon is that China is rushing to declare patients “cured” so it can reduce the number of officially recognized coronavirus cases. Unfortunately, patients who were possibly released prematurely are traveling around China and across the world, increasing the threat of another infection wave.

The South China Morning Post on Thursday discussed a “recovered” coronavirus patient named Adele Jiang who has been quarantined in a hotel in Hubei, the province where the outbreak began, after testing positive for the third time.

Jiang, a 24-year-old student, has been hospitalized, placed in isolation, and discharged twice, only to begin the cycle again when she tested positive less than two weeks after being released. She said her repeated hospitalizations left her “confused and upset.”

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“I was not even told that I had retested positive until I was sent to hospital and the doctors told me I would be treated there again for the coronavirus,” she complained.

“Conditions for discharge include three days of normal body temperature, an absence of respiratory problems, and a significant improvement in the chest lesions which are a feature of the disease. Patients must also test negative in two consecutive PCR tests — the swab technique which identifies any remaining genetic material of the virus — conducted at least one day apart,” the SCMP noted.

Read more: breitbart