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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
Health
Sophie Buchan

Woman catches covid twice in record 20 days as expert warns 'everyone will catch it twice'

A woman is said to have caught covid twice within just 20 days - the shortest-known gap between infections, Spanish researchers have claimed.

Not only that, the 31-year-old healthcare worker was infected with two different variants.

In December she caught the delta variant and 20 days later in January she caught the omicron strain.

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The Spanish woman didn't develop symptoms after her first positive PCR test however less than three weeks later she developed a cough and fever which prompted her to take another test where she again, tested positive.

When the tests were analysed further, they showed the patient had been infected by two different strains of coronavirus.

As a result, researchers have said that it goes to show that even if you've had covid before, you can still be infected again - even if fully vaccinated.

According to the BBC, re-infections in the UK require 90 days between positive tests and because of this, health officials say nearly 900,000 people have potentially been infected twice with covid up to the start of April.

In a presentation at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, study author Dr. Gemma Recio said this case highlighted that the omicron strain can "evade the previous immunity acquired either from a natural infection with other variants or from vaccines".

She said: "In other words, people who have had Covid-19 cannot assume they are protected against reinfection, even if they have been fully vaccinated."

Dr Recio, from the Institut Catala de Salut, Tarragona in Spain added: "Nevertheless, both previous infection with other variants and vaccination do seem to partially protect against severe disease and hospitalisation in those with omicron."

They added that monitoring reinfections in people who were fully vaccinated was crucial in helping covid research and which strains may evade the covid vaccine.

Scientists have said that they believe everyone will catch covid twice and potentially more over the course of their lifetime.

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