Brazil’s Health Ministry is studying 58 suspected cases of Covid-19 re-infection after confirming the first case of a person getting re-infected with the illness caused by the coronavirus, a ministry spokeswoman has said.

The first case was a health worker in the northern city of Natal, a 37-year-old woman, who tested positive in June and again 116 days later in October, the ministry said on Thursday.

So far 58 suspected cases of re-infection have been reported and are being studied, the spokeswoman said.

The cases involve people who tested positive and their re-infection must be confirmed as a separate infection and not the re-appearance of the same infection, she said.