Healthcare worker catches Covid twice in less than three weeks

A healthcare worker caught Covid on two separate occasions over the course of just 20 days, a new study has shown.

It is believed to be the shortest recorded time between two infections since the start of the pandemic. Since the arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant, reinfections have become far more prominent.

The 31-year-old woman from Spain first became infected with Delta in December 2021 – 12 days after she had received her Covid booster vaccine.

Lab analysis showed that she had initially been infected by the Delta variant, followed by Omicron.

Her case, which is being presented to the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Portugal, is believed to represent the shortest recorded time between two separate infections.

Dr Gemma Recio of the Institut Catala de la Salut in Spain, who is one of the study’s authors, said: “This case highlights the potential of the Omicron variant to evade the previous immunity acquired either from a natural infection with other variants or from vaccines".

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

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Source: The Independent, 21 April 2022