Veerawat Manosutthi, a senior medical expert at the Thai Disease Control Department, has advised that patients who have overcome COVID-19 should avoid getting intimate for 30 days, and has even warned against kissing.
In his words:
Those who believe themselves to be free of the virus should use condoms when having s.e.x. Kissing should also be avoided as it is also known that it can spread through the mouth.
Manosutthi’s advice is based on a recent study, which found that some men have traces of the virus in their semen.
In the study, researchers from Shangqiu Municipal Hospital took semen samples from 38 male coronavirus patients in China’s Henan province.
The team analysed the samples on January 26 and again on February 16, and found that 16% of the men had traces of the virus in their semen.
In the study, published in JAMA, the researchers wrote:
The presence of viruses in semen may be more common than currently understood, and traditional nonsexually transmitted viruses should not be assumed to be totally absent in genital secretions.
Aside from semen, coronavirus can also be found in respiratory particles, which means kissing could also be off the cards.
Another doctor, Dr. Simran Deo, a UK-based doctor at Zava UK, also said:
Conditions like coronavirus are spread through water or mucus droplets from the nose and mouth containing the virus. So things, like kissing, shaking hands, sharing food, and drink with someone, put people at an increased risk of passing on the infection.
