The Ômicron variant has been a ‘puzzler’ for health experts around the world. Despite the milder symptoms associated with the new variant of the coronavirus, there are several reports of reinfection. In the UK, for example, there are cases of people who contracted the virus just a few weeks apart, between December and January, and others who have already been infected three or even four times.
What is a reinfection? When a second or subsequent Covid-19 infection is detected, regardless of the variant involved. It is likely that the risk of re-infection depends on a number of factors: for example, the data suggest that it is higher in unvaccinated people and potentially in those whose previous infection was milder, or with a lower immune response.
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The UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) uses the definition of a possible reinfection as a case 90 days or more after a previous confirmed Covid-19 infection, in part because it excludes those who simply spread the virus longer after the infection.
How many reinfections occurred? According to the UKHSA’s latest UK figures, from the start of the pandemic to 9 January this year there were 425,890 possible reinfections, with 109,936 cases found in the week ending 9 January, representing almost 11% of all cases in that year. week.
Very few reinfections are “confirmed” as this requires genetic sequencing testing. Furthermore, with few people in society having access to testing in the first waves of Covid-19, many first infections may not have been counted.
“With the combination of two years of pandemic, the decline in antibodies, two big waves of immune evasion by Delta and then by Ômicron, there is a very rampant reinfection,” said Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London.
Is it easier to be reinfected with some variants? Yes. According to scientists from Imperial College London, after taking into account a number of factors, Ômicron was associated with a risk of reinfection between 4.38 and 6.63 times greater compared to Delta.
Do Ômicron reinfections happen in a shorter period of time? Potentially, yes. UKHSA data shows that for cases with a sample date between 1 November and 29 December 2021, there were 2,855 likely re-infections 29 to 89 days after a previous infection – although some may reflect continued detection of an initial infection. .
Although the UKHSA has noted that it is difficult to directly compare the situation between variants – as there are many important shifting factors at play, including the general levels of immunity in the population – the ability of Omicron to ‘escape’ immunity possibly plays an important role. in reinfections.
“I would expect the risk of a second Omicron infection to be much lower than the risk of Omicron after Delta. After all, the human body has developed antibodies to the current spike protein of Ômicron”, assured Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, in the United Kingdom.
Why has my son contracted Covid-19 twice this winter? This could very well be due to different variants: according to data from the Office of National Statistics released in December, school-age children with Covid-19 at that time were much less likely to have Ómicron than Covid-19-positive adults. .
“The data shows that those who tested positive for coronavirus between 29 and 89 days from a previous infection represent a small proportion of all reinfections. Many of these shorter-interval reinfections are likely to be school-age children because they had the highest levels of infection in September and October, just before the appearance of Omicron,” a UKHSA spokesperson reported.
Are reinfections milder? Given the previous immune response of the human body, the data suggest that the viral load in reinfections is lower than in primary infections, suggesting that the disease may, in general, be less severe. However, the severity depends on several factors.
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