Reinfections were once thought to be very rare. But that changed with the arrival of Omicron, which is different enough from the original virus that causes COVID and other variants to evade some existing immunity.
As a scientist and a mom, Julie Lajoie was “frustrated” to recently discover her daughter appeared to have been reinfected with“I am seeing my oldest, who is normally full of energy, asking for a nap and slowly fighting this virus — again,” Lajoie, a research associate at the University of Manitoba who holds a PhD in virology and immunology, said in an email, having lost her voice due to her own COVID infection.
Now, with cases soaring in the midst of a sixth wave, documented reinfections of COVID-19 are rising again, according to, with almost 12,000 total reinfections since November 2020. The agency warns that the risk of reinfection with the more contagious BA.2 subvariant, which is now dominant globally, is “high.”
“It’s not that necessarily all of a sudden BA.2 is more capable of causing reinfections, it’s that there’s more opportunities for reinfections to occur,” said Angela Rasmussen, a research scientist and adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan, “because we’re opening up.” As for whether the average person who recently got Omicron or BA.2 can expect to be reinfected, Rasmussen said it depends on a number of factors including their vaccination status and immune system.
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