In Spain, a fully vaccinated 31-year-old woman contracted Covid-19 twice in three weeks. This is the shortest time between two coronavirus infections, according to researchers who presented his case at a scientific congress in Portugal.
- In general, there is at least a 90 day interval between two positive tests.
- The previous longest infection was 335 days, also in an immunocompromised person who lives in North America.
During the European Society Of Clinical Microbiology And Infectious Diseases congress, which is currently taking place in Portugal, scientists have revealed the shortest Covid-19 reinfection and the longest coronavirus infection. Now, the shortest documented interval between two contaminations is 20 days. On April 21, the British newspaper The Guardianrevealed that in Spain, a nurse had caught the virus twice in just three weeks.
Infected with Delta and Omicron variants 20 days apart
According to the Spanish researchers, the caregiver had tested positive for Covid-19 on December 20, 2021. The 31-year-old woman had received a booster dose of the vaccine 12 days before she learned that she was affected by the coronavirus. When she had Covid-19, the patient had no symptoms and isolated herself for 10 days before returning to work. On January 10, 2022, 20 days after the first positive test, she was suffering from a fever and a cough and decided to take a test. The result came in: it was positive.
According to the scientists, whole genome sequencing showed that the 30-year-old had been infected with the Delta variant in December and infected with the Omicron variant in January. “This case highlights the potential of the Omicron variant to evade prior immunity acquired either by natural infection with other variants or by vaccines”Gemma Recio, author of the study and researcher at the Institut Català de la Salut in Tarragona, told the British newspaper.
A patient positive for Covid-19 for 505 days, a record
During the congress, another record case, but this time concerning a coronavirus infection, was presented. Researchers from King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London (UK) reported that a British patient had remained positive for Covid-19 for 505 days. To reach this discovery, they conducted a study with nine immunocompromised people who had persistent coronavirus infection. Among the volunteers, four adults died, four participants were cured and one patient was still infected with the virus at the beginning of 2022. At that time, he had remained positive for Covid-19 for 412 days after being affected by the virus for the first time.