Coronavirus : Sex should be avoided for 30 days after COVID-19 recovery says, experts

A senior medical expert at the Thai Disease Control Department has claimed that patients who have overcome the disease need to hold off before jumping into bed with their partners.

Citing a Chinese study that warned that semen could carry the virus, Veerawat Manosutthi said people should even avoid kissing.

In the UK so far there have been over 33,000 fatalities from the virus and globally it has killed over 302,000 people.

Manosutthi claimed that people should "wear a condom when they start to become sexually active again even after 30 days".

Earlier this month researchers claimed that men who had recovered from the infection still had Covid-19 in their semen.

Chinese scientists analysed the output of 38 patients who had caught the illness – 15 who were still in hospital and 23 who had recovered.

Overall six men, or 16 per cent, had the virus Sars-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus, in their sperm sample – and two of them were already over their illness.

Scientists say it suggests the bug can persist much longer in the testes and could be spread later through sex.

Writing in the journal JAMA Network Open, researcher Dr Shixi Zhang, from the Shangqiu Municipal Hospital, says "the survival of SARS-CoV-2 in a recovering patient’s semen maintains the likelihood to infect others".

He added if bigger trials show coronavirus is passed on during sex, the recovering men should be encouraged to "abstain or use condoms" to prevent transmission.