South Yorkshire dad who caught coronavirus twice gives stark warning about illness

Stewart Platts, 65, from Thurcroft, was initially admitted to Rotherham Hospital in April with gallstones, lung and liver problems and a fast, abnormal heart rate of 200 beats per minute before a registrar told him he had Covid-19, despite a negative test result.

"The registrar said to me I don’t believe that – he said at best the swab test is 70 per cent accurate,” dad-of-two Stewart told The Star.

"He said from all the things they could see inside my body it was very evident I had Covid.”

Sheffield engineer becomes the first British male to test positive TWICE for the coronavirus.

Doctors performed an MRI scan, CT scan and an X-ray on Stewart before concluding he was positive.

Stewart, who works in family placement for Rotherham Council, added: “The registrar said all the signs were Covid. He said they couldn’t trust the swab test because of its inaccuracy.

"They were just about to cut me open for an operation when someone came in and said: ‘Stop, he’s positive’. They all had to gown up and move me to a special ward.”

After a stint in Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Stewart was discharged in May after his health improved – but an antibody test at the beginning of September came back negative.

He said: “They said it was normal because not everyone develops antibodies and some people lose them within three months.”

Stewart fell ill again weeks later and tested positive on 29 September before being readmitted to Rotherham Hospital, where he met a nurse who told him she had also been infected twice.

Stewart, who is married to Sharon, 61, said: “A surgeon looked at us and said: ‘Christ, I don’t believe it’. When you speak to GPs they don’t seem unduly worried, they just said it’s a new virus and we’re still learning about it.

"The message for other people is that it’s not a once-and-for-all infection. People need to be aware it’s not just one person in 250,000 that can catch this twice. The chances are anyone can catch it multiple times and, with the risk group I’m in, if it doesn’t kill you the first time it might the second.”

Last month Matt Hancock said scientists were investigating “credible” cases of coronavirus reinfection.