It is possible to be reinfected with the Covid Omicron BA.5 strain within just six to eight weeks of recovering from an earlier variant, an Australian health official has claimed. Omicron BA.5 is the dominant strain of covid in the UK, accounting for an estimated 78.7% of cases, Government figures show.
With the virus continuing to produce new variants it has been a difficult task for scientists to determine how long immunity lasts for those who have recovered from coronavirus. The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) figures for reinfections in the UK show a large peak from April of this year which has yet to dip significantly.
The ONS website states: “There has been a large increase in the rates for all first reinfections, and first reinfections with a high viral load, since the Omicron variants became dominant.” Meanwhile the NHS page on Covid reinfection states: “You probably have some immunity to the virus but it's not clear how long it lasts.”
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A recent study on healthcare workers in the UK, published last week in Science , looked at why countries with a high vaccine uptake are still “experiencing substantial caseloads with breakthrough infection and frequent reinfection”. It found that the “immune-damping effects” of the new Omicron variants meant the body’s response to reinfection was “muted”.
Many will have heard anecdotal evidence from somebody who has been reinfected with covid just weeks after recovering. However, UK health officials have yet to establish a clear timeline for how quickly you can be reinfected due to the fast pace of the emerging variants.
Andrew Roberston, Western Australia’s chief health officer, said that the region had also been seeing an upsurge in the number of people being reinfected due to the new variants. The doctor said that Omicron BA.5 or BA.4 was reinfecting people who had recovered from BA.2 just six to eight weeks earlier, the Independent reports.
Covid is still spreading among the population with an average of 3.7 covid related deaths each day in Wales, according to the Government’s most recent records for the 7 days to July 27. The Government also states that younger people are more likely to be reinfected.
An ONS report into covid risk factors states : “Between 2 July 2020 and 1 July 2022, people were more likely to be reinfected if they: had a "milder" primary infection with a lower viral load ,did not report symptoms with their first infection, or were younger.”
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