72-yr-old British man tests positive for Coronavirus for 10 months in supposedly longest recorded case of continuous infection

A 72-year-old British man tested positive for Coronavirus for 10 months in what is thought to be the longest recorded case of continuous infection, researchers said today.

Dave Smith, a retired driving instructor from Bristol in western England, said he tested positive 43 times, was hospitalised seven times and had made plans for his funeral.

His wife, Linda, who quarantined with him at home, said there were a lot of times when they didn’t think he was going to pull through.

Ed Moran, a consultant in infectious diseases at the University of Bristol and North Bristol NHS Trust, said Smith had active virus in his body throughout. A paper on his case will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases in July, saying that this is thought to be the longest infection recorded in the literature.

Smith recovered after treatment with a cocktail of synthetic antibodies developed by the US biotech firm Regeneron.