Coronavirus: Here’s Why You Could Get Re-infected

It’s been over two years since the Covid-19 pandemic started wreaking havoc, and we’re still unable to get it under full control. While vaccinations have helped much in controlling the disease, the emergence of new variants and reinfection remains a cause for concern. Even after contracting the virus once, there are millions of people who have been re-infected with Covid-19 and continue to contract the disease more than once.

Research has shown that for people recovering from the deadly Covid-19, their immunity usually lasts for about three months to a few years. But it always depends on the variants you are infected with.

Here are several reasons for reinfection:

1. Virus Mutations: It is known that viruses are programmed to mutate and the variants arise due to the changes or mutations in the genetic material of the virus. As a result, they become more contagious, more transmissible, more severe, or even capable of evading vaccine-induced immunity. And experts believe it could lead to a possibility of reinfection.
2. Declining Immunity: An October 2021 study explained that after being infected with Covid-19, your body builds up a strong resistance, remembers the virus particles and forms antibodies to them that protect you against possible re-infection, at least for about three months to five years.
   However, experts suspect that when your body is not in contact with the virus for a long time, the memory of the virus particles can fade and the production of antibodies can decrease, which can decrease your body’s immunity over time, leading to likely reinfections. .
3. New Recombinant Strains: Compared to previous variants, experts believe that Omicron is more serious at re-infecting humans. A study by the Covid-19 response team at Imperial College London shows that the risk of reinfection with Omicron is 5.4 times higher than with the Delta variant.