COVID reinfections surge during Omicron onslaught

. Now Abu-Raddad and others are revealing how well Omicron can evade antibodies produced during previous SARS-CoV-2 infections. “The ability of Omicron to infect people with either vaccine- or infection-derived immunity is a key part of what made the recent surge so large,” says Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Understanding reinfection rates is crucial for assessing “how infections might surge and if hospitals will be able to cope”, says Catherine Bennett, an epidemiologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.The first signs of Omicron’s immune-evasive properties came from data collected in South Africa, says Bennett.

The UK Office for National Statistics in Newport has also seen a sharp increase in possible reinfections in recent months, as part of its random sampling of households across the country. The survey counts a possible reinfection if four months have passed since the previous one. The reinfection risk was 16 times higher between mid-December last year and early January this year when Omicron dominated, than in the 7 months leading up to December when Delta was the dominant variant.

Such surveys could be underestimating the true rate of reinfection because some infections go undiagnosed, and some could have happened sooner after the first infection — especially in countries where cases of Omicron quickly followed a Delta wave, says Bennett. Multiple factors could explain the spike in reinfections, she says. With more people now already exposed to the virus, there is a higher chance of seeing reinfections. Omicron’s speedy spread also increases the chance. But the variant’s ability to evade immunity is probably playing a part, says Bennett.

MartyMakary Help us, please.

I don’t have thousands of dollars to pay to publish in your journal. Can I have a loan?

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Covid-19 Death Reports in U.S. Begin to Drop as Omicron Surge FadesCovid-19 deaths are declining in the Northeast and Midwest, following similar trends for cases and hospitalizations, but still remain high in California.
Source: WSJhealth - 🏆 413. / 53 Read more »

Portugal drops most COVID-19 rules as Omicron ebbsAs an Omicron-fuelled wave of infections ebbs, Portugal said on Thursday it would drop most of its remaining coronavirus rules, including the requirement to show the COVID-19 digital pass to stay at hotels or a negative test to enter nightclubs.
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »

Covid-19: Four more Covid-related deaths and 433 in hospitalThe total number of deaths linked to the virus reported by Stormont's Department of Health is 3,170.
Source: bbchealth - 🏆 143. / 63 Read more »

COVID reinfections surge during Omicron onslaughtImmunity acquired through previous infection is less effective against Omicron than against other variants, but the risk of severe COVID-19 remains low.
Source: Nature - 🏆 64. / 68 Read more »

COVID Omicron News: Anime convention at Javits Center not a superspreader event, CDC saysWhen a person tested positive for omicron after attending an anime convention in New York City late last year, health officials raced to determine if the indoor gathering was a superspreader event.
Source: ABC7NY - 🏆 592. / 51 Read more »

White House says changes to COVID-19 guidance, including masks, may come within weeksThe Biden administration signaled Wednesday that COVID-19 guidance could be relaxed in the coming weeks as businesses and state and local governments — from Walt Disney World to city leaders in the nation’s capital — increasingly rush to lift indoor mask rules ahead of the federal government.
Source: WashTimes - 🏆 235. / 63 Read more »