Hong Kong, Feb 24 (IANS): There is a new dangerous trend emerging in the coronavirus (COVID-19) epicentre of Wuhan as several cured patients have tested positive and were sent to quarantine again for 14 days.

As per reports in the Chinese media, patients who had recovered and discharged people were sent to quarantine centres from Saturday.

The intervention by the authorities follows several instances in which recovered patients were found to be still carrying the virus and able to infect others.

Doctors were quoted by the Chinese media as saying that that there had been cases in which patients tested positive after they had seemingly recovered.

"This is dangerous, Zhao was quoted as saying by Southern People Weekly magazine. "Where do you put those patients? You cannot send them home, because they might infect others, but you cannot put them in hospital because resources are stretched."

Xiang Nijuan, a Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention researcher, was on Friday quoted by state broadcaster CCTV as saying that monitoring of those who have had close contact with patients should be expanded to a wider pool of people, because some patients had been contagious two days before the onset of their own illness.

The Wuhan administration has introduced 14 days' mandatory quarantine for recovered patients, after some discharged patients again tested positive.

From Saturday, all patients who had recovered and been discharged had to be sent to designated places for two weeks of quarantine and medical observation, the city's coronavirus treatment and control command centre said.

Wuhan and the rest of Hubei province, of which it is the capital, have continued to account for the vast majority of confirmed coronavirus cases in mainland China.