Originally published on Live Science.
By Yasemin Saplakoglu August 24
Reinfection – What Reinfection?
BREAKING: First ever official Re-Infection case of COVID-19 Coronavirus documented.
This may be the first major clue to a still-unanswered question about the COVID-19 pandemic:
How long does immunity to SARS-CoV-2 last?
There have been some previous reports of potential reinfection cases around the globe,
but none have been confirmed with definitive testing, according to The New York Times.
People who recover from COVID-19 can shed virus fragments for weeks, which can turn up
as a positive COVID-19 test results, even when they aren’t actually shedding live virus.
But on (Aug. 24), a group of researchers reported on a case of a patient who was infected
with two genetically different strains of the coronavirus, months apart, according to a press release
from the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Medicine. The scientists found that the coronavirus
that infected the patient, a 33-year-old-man in Hong Kong, the second time around had 24 different nucleotides, or building blocks, in its gene sequence than the virus that infected him the first time.
Related: Coronavirus live updates
That likely means that the person didn’t just continue to shed the same virus months
after being infected, according to the study that was just accepted, but not yet published,
in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
But this case shouldn’t spark widespread fear.
“This is no cause for alarm – this is a textbook example of how immunity should work,”
Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology and molecular, cellular and developmental biology at
the Yale School of Medicine, wrote on Twitter.
The patient, who was previously healthy, was first diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26.
During his first infection he had mild symptoms including a cough, sore throat, headache
and fever for several days. Though his symptoms subsided, he was hospitalized on March 29
and was discharged on April 14 after testing negative for the virus twice.
Four and half months later, the patient was returning to Hong Kong from Spain via the United Kingdom
and tested positive for the virus in a screening at the Hong Kong airport on Aug. 15, according to the report.
He was again hospitalized but didn’t have any symptoms. “While immunity was not enough to block reinfection, it protected the person from disease,” Iwasaki wrote.
Antibody tests showed that the patient did not have any detectable antibody to the coronavirus
when he was re-infected but developed detectable antibodies after reinfection. “This is encouraging,”
Iwasaki wrote. “While this is a good example of how primary infection can prevent disease from subsequent infection, more studies are needed to understand the range of outcomes from reinfection.”
Coronavirus Pandemic Update 42: Immunity to COVID-19 and is Reinfection Possible?
This case of re-infection has “several important implications,” the authors wrote in the study.
“It is unlikely that herd immunity can eliminate SARS-CoV-2, although it is possible that subsequent infections may be milder than the first infection as for this patient.” COVID-19 will likely continue to circulate in the human population, similar to the coronaviruses that cause common colds, they wrote. Other implications are that vaccines may not be able to provide lifelong protection against COVID-19 and that vaccines studies should include those who have recovered from COVID-19, the authors wrote.
“What I think is really important is that we put this into context,”
Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for coronavirus response
and head of the emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, said during a news briefing in Geneva on Monday
(Aug. 24), according to CNN. There’s been more than 24 million cases of COVID-19 reported worldwide,
and so “we need to look at something like this on a population level.”
Van Kerkhove said she was still reviewing the case, according to STAT News.
“What we are learning about infection is that people do develop an immune response,
and what is not completely clear yet is how strong that immune response is and
for how long that immune response lasts.” #LoveInTheTimeofCorona
CDC Director Says These States Started to ‘Turn the Tide’ on COVID.
1. Arizona
In his JAMA interview, Redfield specifically cited Arizona for following CDC mitigation guidelines as evidence of how successful those can be. “If you see how Arizona, for example, put that in play and literally, you saw about two to four weeks later, you really see that we can get control of this pandemic. We don’t have to close retail. We don’t have to lock down. We really just need to wear face garments when we can’t go social distance, wash our hands, and be smart about crowds,” he said. “We can get this outbreak under control.
And we’re now starting to see that take effect, I think, more broadly across the South.”
According to The New York Times, Arizona saw the highest spike in daily COVID-19 cases on Jun. 30
at nearly 4,800 infections. But by closing bars statewide and after major cities mandated mask wearing,
the number of daily cases was down to 208 on Aug. 23. And for more on Arizona’s recent success story,
check out Dr. Fauci Says This Is Why Coronavirus Cases Are Dropping in Arizona.
2. Florida
The Sunshine State was among the first states to reopen in the spring.
As a result, Florida also received a fair amount of attention when its daily COVID cases spiked
at a whopping 15,300 infections on Jul. 13, according to The New York Times. Over the past six weeks, however, daily cases have dropped dramatically. On Aug. 23, for example, Florida reported 3,000 new
COVID cases. To be sure, that is still a lot of daily infections, but it’s also 20 percent of its previous record high.
And for more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter.
3. California
California was the very first state to lockdown its local economy on March 19,
which successfully managed its initial COVID outbreak. But the Golden State later struggled in July,
peaking at over 12,100 daily infections on Jul. 22, according to The New York Times.
As of Aug. 23, the number of daily infections has fallen significantly to just over 4,600 cases.
And to learn what was behind the state’s surge,
check out This Is What Fueled California’s Deadly COVID Outbreak, New Study Says.
4. Texas
No other state may have a more mercurial relationship with COVID-19 infections than the Lone Star State. Gov. Greg Abbott was initially resolute in his call to reopen many local businesses across the state of Texas, but as he saw a sharp spike in infections early in the summer, he reversed that decision and called for bars to shut down. He also eventually mandated masks for Texans in areas above a certain COVID count. According to The New York Times, daily infections in Texas peaked at over 15,000 on Jul. 12, but mitigation efforts seem to have slowed cases a bit. On Aug. 23, the state registered its lowest total since Jun. 15 of just under 3,000 cases. For more on issues Texas faced, check out This Is Why Texas Has “Gone From Bad to Worse.”