‘The coronavirus is becoming a mild disease’: what the UK report on Covid-19 re-infections says

The coronavirus has started showing signs that it is becoming a milder disease for people who have already been infected, according to a study. In other words, people who have already had the disease, if they catch it, suffer less from it than the first time.

Last April, England’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) began examining people who had been affected by covid to determine the risk of their re-infection. Of the 19,470 cases they studied, between April 2020 and July 2021, 195 were infected a second time.

It was equivalent to only one percent of people have been re-infected. It also meant they were less likely to spread the virus and get sick. Only a quarter of re-infected participants had a high viral load, considered a score below 30.

Scientists say the results are proof that immunity, both against vaccines and against natural infections, works. Although, they point out, no vaccine is perfect and many fully vaccinated people continue are at risk of infection.

// Who is most likely to be re-infected with the coronavirus

“The ONS survey will continue to collect information from our valuable participants to provide important information about infections, antibodies and characteristics of those infected,” the researchers said in a statement.

“Last week we counted how the Delta variant now accounts for 99% of all cases in the UK because Public health England (an organ of the Department of Health in England) urged the British to continue receiving their vaccines, ”they stressed.

While the overall chances of being re-infected are very low, the Delta variant, first identified in India, is said to have a 46% more likely to do so.

Professor Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, said Online Mail that “we shouldn’t be too surprised” by the ONS findings. “These results show that past infections lead to good immunity for at least a relatively short period of time. But it’s not absolute”.

In those re-infected, the levels of the virus in the nose and throat were lower than the viral loads seen during a first infection. “This suggests that your pre-existing immunity, without preventing infection, cushions effectively replicating the virus for the second time, ”he concludes.