Coronavirus infection: “I got infected with COVID just a month ago but I recently met a positive person. Can I get infected again?”

The questions surrounding COVID do not seem to end. One of the most common questions people ask is about reinfection. With vaccination and booster shots available in plenty people are still worried about the chances of getting the infection again after being exposed to an infected person.

With COVID there is as much chance of reinfection as there is for infection. Moreover, COVID guidelines have also been relaxed in several places which makes the chances of reinfection more possible.

Reinfection is when a person who was infected, recovered, and then later became infected again. COVID reinfection is a big possibility, many cases of reinfection were reported during the second and third waves of the infection.

As per a research study, published in the Lancet, “ Reinfection by SARS-CoV-2 under endemic conditions would likely occur between 3 months and 5·1 years after peak antibody response, with a median of 16 months.” A May 2021 report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) also confirms that in most people immune responses remain robust and protective against reinfection for at least 6-8 months after infection.

Now that Omicron is the dominant strain of the coronavirus, the reinfection possibility is likely to be higher. According to a February 2022 study published in Nature, "the reinfection risk was 16 times higher between mid-December last year and early January this year when Omicron dominated, than in the 7 months leading up to December when Delta was the dominant variant." The study took into account the survey done by the UK Health Security Agency and the UK Office for National Statistics in Newport which considered possible reinfection if four months have passed since the previous one.

One of the possible reasons why reinfection is a bigger menace in the third wave is because of the ability of the virus to evade the immunity.

Read: Omicron variant likely to cause upper airways infection in kids, finds study

Quarantine never gets old or useless. Once you get to know that the person with whom you were in contact has tested positive, it is wise to:

• Quickly sanitize the places in your home where you have been
• Self isolate yourself
• Inform your friends and family about this
• If you have been to someone’s place within that duration, inform them too
• Stay away from older people and kids
• Wash your hands frequently
• Do not go outdoors
• Maintain social distancing of minimum 1 metre from other people