Can you catch two COVID variants at once? Experts warn it’s possible

The woman died of COVID in March in Belgium. She had not been vaccinated. She lived alone and received nursing care at home before contracting the virus and being evacuated to the OLV hospital in Aalst.

According to the BBC, her doctors believe she contracted the double infection from two different people.

The strange case will be discussed at the European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, but has yet to be officially published in a peer-reviewed journal.

“These two variants were circulating in Belgium at the time, so it is likely that the lady was co-infected with different viruses from two different people,” said Anne Vankeerberghen, OLV hospital molecular biologist and lead author. of the study.

The woman’s medical history was “unremarkable,” according to a press release. After being hospitalized, she tested positive for COVID-19. Her respiratory symptoms quickly worsened and she died five days after being evacuated to hospital.

“Since co-infections with variants of concern can only be detected by analyzing positive samples for VOCs, we encourage scientists to perform fast, easy and inexpensive VOC analysis by PCR on a large part. of their positive samples, rather than whole samples. small proportion genome sequencing, ”said Vankeerberghen. “Regardless of the technique used, being on the lookout for co-infections remains crucial.”