When the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading two years ago, it was shocking for individuals to discover that others they knew had contracted the virus; however, the situation has changed now, as what is more surprising is finding out that someone has not been infected. According to a report by CNN, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States concluded last April that the majority of Americans had contracted COVID-19 by February 2022.
Officially, 87 million COVID cases have been recorded in the country, but the CDC believes that the actual numbers are much higher, with some estimates suggesting that the total number of infections has reached 187 million. Some believe that contracting COVID-19 is a one-time event, but over time, what is known as "long COVID" emerged, lasting for months rather than the two weeks previously thought. The new aspect here is that contracting COVID-19 again after recovery has become common.
The CDC has reported that individuals can become infected with COVID-19 multiple times even after recovering from the virus. Ziad Ali, director of the clinical epidemiology center in Missouri, stated, "If you had asked me a year and a half ago about a second COVID infection, I would have said that I might have had one patient here or there; it was a rare occurrence." However, this situation has changed. Factors leading to increased second infections include the emergence of new variants that heighten the risk of reinfection. For instance, Dr. Chin Hogen in California noted that the BA.4 and BA.5 variants have the ability to evade immunity, even among those who had previously contracted the virus. Additionally, Andrew Robertson, chief health officer of Western Australia, remarked that what we are currently seeing is a rising number of individuals who were infected with the BA.2 variant and subsequently contracted COVID-19 again after four weeks.
