Most people who have had Covid-19 she is protected from taking it again for at least six months, but above the age of 65 the protection drops from 80 to 47%. The first large-scale study on reinfection from Covid-19 conducted by researchers from the Staten Serum Institut and ‘University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, just published in the scientific journal The Lancet.
So far the pandemic has resulted 121 million cases and 2.67 million deaths in the world. Recent studies had suggested that reinfections are rare and that immunity can last at least six months, however, how one is protected from repeated infections still remains not understood.
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“Our study confirms what many others seemed to suggest: reinfection is rare in younger, healthier people, but older people are at greater risk. Since older people are also more likely to exhibit symptoms of serious illness, and sadly to die, our results make it clear how important it is to implement policies to protect the elderly during the pandemic, “he explains Steen Ethelberg, researcher of the Statens Serum Institut.
“The immune system is known to function less in the elderly and reduced immunity in this age group is also observed for other infectious diseases. So the explanation could be just this – adds the author of the study, we contacted for Salute – but, given the high stakes, our results underline how important it is for people to implement social distancing to keep themselves and others safe, even if they have already had Covid “.
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The large-scale assessment of reinfection rates, published in The Lancet , is based on the results of swabs performed in Denmark, where more than two thirds of the population (69%, or 4 million people) were tested in 2020. The results collected during the first wave, between March and May, and the second, between September and December, were compared. And the numbers confirm that only a small percentage of people, 0.65% (72 out of 11068), tested twice as positive.
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However, while the previous infection provided about 80 percent protection against reinfection, for people aged 65 and over it dropped to 47 percent, indicating they are more likely to contract the virus again. Of those under the age of 65 who have had the Covid during the first wave, 0.6% (55 out of 9137) tested positive again during the second. The second wave infection rate among people in this group was 3.6% (14953 out of 420909) while among older people who had not previously had Covid, 2% (1866 out of 93,362) was positive result during the second wave.
It is important to underline that the analysis focused only on the original strain and did not evaluate the variants, some of which are proving to be more transmissible. But similar results were obtained from the analysis of an alternative cohort, whose tests on nearly 2.5 million people were evaluated to determine reinfection rates, not just during the second wave. 0.48% (138 out of 28875) recovered by Covid at least three months later and the estimated protection against reinfection was 78.8%. Protection against repeated infections varied little among people younger than 65, with authors estimating 80.5% protection for this group. However, the shield against reinfection was much lower among people over the age of 65, with an estimated protection of just 47%.
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