The longest of Covids: 72-year-old UK man tested positive for 10 months

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

Smith, a retired driving instructor from Bristol, said he tested positive 43 times, was hospitalised seven times. He joked his wife had made plans for his funeral five times.

He was eventually cured with the same antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron that was used to treat former US president Donald Trump.

He celebrated with a bottle of champagne when he finally tested negative, 45 days after receiving the Regeneron drug and some 305 days after his first infection.