Getting COVID twice is more common as immunity wanes

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REGINA — Christine Enns mentioned she was shocked when a speedy take a look at confirmed she had examined constructive for COVID-19.
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Enns, who acquired two doses of COVID-19 vaccine and a booster shot, already had the virus in early February and thought reinfection was uncommon.
“I began feeling sick three to 4 days in the past considering, ‘This appears like COVID.’ I took 5 exams and …as we speak it got here again constructive,” the bakery proprietor mentioned Friday from her residence in Warren, Mba., about 45 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
“It did come as a shock to me due to all of the issues I put in place to not get it. Now that I had it twice, I don’t really feel fairly as invincible.”
Reinfection of COVID-19 was thought-about uncommon, however then the Omicron variant arrived.
“As a result of Omicron is so completely different, earlier an infection doesn’t defend you,” Saskatchewan’s chief medical well being officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, mentioned final week.
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He mentioned public well being knowledge suggests as much as 10% of contaminated Canadians who’ve lately had BA.2 — a sub-variant of Omicron — beforehand had BA.1 or a earlier an infection, just like the Delta variant.
This aligns with latest research completed in England that recommend 10% of reported circumstances are reinfections.
“That exhibits simply since you bought Omicron as soon as doesn’t imply you’re bulletproof now,” Shahab mentioned.
Not all provinces publicly report reinfection charges. Nonetheless, in Ontario, public well being says almost 12,000 folks have gotten COVID-19 twice since November 2020 with the present danger of reinfection deemed “excessive.”
Quebec’s Nationwide Institute of Public Well being says the variety of presumed reinfections has elevated drastically in its province since Omicron arrived.
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In a January report, Quebec reported 32 reinfections for each 1,000 main infections, with almost 9,000 folks suspected of getting reinfected since Might of 2020.
Nazeem Muhajarine, an epidemiologist on the College of Saskatchewan, mentioned in contrast to different variants Omicron is a lot better at working round immunity that’s both induced by vaccines or earlier infections.
“Not solely is it capable of escape immunity, however it’s taking place at a time the place folks’s immunity is waning,” Muhajarine mentioned, including it has been three to 5 months since most Canadians have accomplished their two-dose vaccine sequence.
“It’s a little bit of a double jeopardy there, and that’s why we’re seeing so many extra reinfections with Omicron.”
Well being officers proceed to recommend that individuals full their two-dose COVID-19 vaccine sequence and get boosted with a 3rd dose and, if eligible, a fourth shot.
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“Vaccines actually work effectively towards extreme outcomes” like hospitalization and demise, mentioned Shahab.
“Although you bought COVID in some unspecified time in the future up to now, you possibly can wait anyplace from two weeks to a few months to get a booster.”
Nationwide, about 47% of eligible folks have acquired a 3rd dose, says the Public Well being Company of Canada.
Regardless of getting COVID-19 twice, Enns mentioned she’s going to get a second booster if she turns into eligible.
“I really feel if I didn’t have the vaccinations, I’d undoubtedly be within the hospital,” mentioned Enns, who is taken into account at-risk as a result of she has Kind 2 diabetes and bronchial asthma.
Enns recalled realizing an unvaccinated one that died alone in hospital because of COVID-19, calling the expertise “terrible.”
“You suppose, ‘That could possibly be me.’ However I’m not. I’m at residence and sick, however I’ll dwell.”