A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS COVID-19 REINFECTION IS POSSIBLE. HERE'S WHAT TO KNOW

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Preliminary research released Monday suggests it’s possible to get COVID-19 twice—but experts say the news is not as concerning as that headline may seem.

a woman holding a little girl wearing a hat: An employee takes a throat swab sample from a woman seeking a test for possible COVID-19 infection at a test station in Bonn, Germany on Aug. 24, 2020.© Andreas Rentz—Getty Images An employee takes a throat swab sample from a woman seeking a test for possible COVID-19 infection at a test station in Bonn, Germany on Aug. 24, 2020.

The new research, which was accepted for publication in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, details the case of a 33-year-old man living in Hong Kong. He first tested positive for COVID-19 in late March and developed symptoms including cough, sore throat, fever and headache. He made a full recovery, but again tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling home from Europe in mid-August. This time, he did not have any symptoms.

The Hong Kong-based researchers behind the study say the man’s case is the first proven example of reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. There have been other documented cases of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 multiple times, but it has not been clear whether they’re truly reinfected or if some of the virus’ genetic material lingers within the body, leading to repeated positive tests. Viral sequencing, however, showed the Hong Kong patient was infected by two different strains of SARS-CoV-2, which suggests he indeed got sick twice.

But in some ways, the case is actually encouraging, says Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine who was not involved in the study.

“There’s no need to panic over this reinfection news,” Iwasaki says. “Even though he got reinfected…this is a good example of how immunity should work in a person.”