Although the incidence of COVID-19 is declining across the country, the chances of re-infection with the virus are still possible – especially from the omicron variant, experts say.
“As long as you surrender to the community, there is always an opportunity,” Stephen Hoption Kahn, a clinical professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, told Global News.
Read more: Ontario COVID numbers: 1,116 people in hospital, 160 in intensive care
Getting Omicron more than once also seems more likely than other options.
“The Omicron option, in particular, seems to be one that will infect people again and again,” Kelly McNagney, a professor of medical genetics at the University of British Columbia’s School of Biomedical Engineering, told Global News.
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“It’s a bit more like the common cold virus, which tends to infect the upper respiratory tract, which is a place where you are not inclined to develop strong immunity easily.
Unlike Omicron, other variants of the virus tend to infect someone deeper in the airways, according to McNagney. “I think that gave you a little more protection,” he said.
5:03 Reflection on a positive diagnosis COVID-19 Reflection on a positive diagnosis COVID-19
Lisa Glover, assistant director of Alberta Health, also said that “re-infections have increased since Omicron became the dominant option.”
“The risk of re-infection with Omicron is much higher than any other option,” Glover told Global News.
“A major factor that increases the likelihood of re-infection is the weakening immunity from a previous infection or the lack of a complete update of COVID-19 immunization, including additional doses,” she said.
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Regardless of the option, McNagney says vaccination will provide a higher level of protection against re-infection. In addition to vaccination, the return of mask mandates may also mean fewer people will be re-infected with the virus.
“That’s pretty clear,” McNagney said. “As soon as we started throwing away the masks, the infection rate started to rise again.”
In places where many public health measures have been removed, the rate of transmission of COVID-19 has recovered, as have cases of influenza, Canada’s chief medical officer, Dr Theresa Tam, told reporters on Friday during at a virtual press conference.
“Personal safety habits help reduce the spread of COVID-19, as well as other risky transactions during illness,” she said. “It’s a reminder that our efforts are still needed.”
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“Now that we don’t have masks, you see this huge increase in the flu population,” Horacio Bach, a clinical assistant with the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of British Columbia School of Medicine, told Global News.
“Masks are definitely the first line of defense,” Bach said, noting that returning masks would reduce the likelihood of re-infection. “I’m doubly disguised everywhere,” he said. “This is my defense.”
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Even celebrities like comedian Jimmy Kimmel have tested positive for the virus more than once.
I am such a positive person, I gave a positive test AGAIN. I feel good – the greats John @Mulaney and Andy Samberg @TheLonelyIsland kindly agreed to host @JimmyKimmelLive for me tomorrow.
– Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) May 17, 2022
In a Twitter update on May 17, Kimmel wrote: “I am such a positive person, I tested positive AGAIN. But he added that he “feels good”.
Most provinces that responded to Global News, including Alberta, Nova Scotia and Quebec, failed to provide data on re-infection. Between May 8 and 14, 415 cases of COVID-19 re-infection were reported in the province of Ontario.
A spokesman for the Northwest Territories also confirmed that people have experienced re-infections there.
“Recurrent infections with COVID-19 were identified during the Omicron wave, with most previous infections occurring during the Delta wave,” a Global News spokesman said in an email.
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8:34 What it means to discover Omicron sub-variants for Canadians What it means to discover Omicron sub-variants for Canadians
As of May 20, the average for seven days of daily laboratory-confirmed cases in Canada is just over 3,564, which is more than 60% less than the percentage observed a month ago.
The number of Canadians seeking hospital treatment for COVID-19 is 4,880, up 20 percent from two weeks ago. This includes 349 people treated in intensive care units, a number that is now stabilizing after a fall in the first half of April.
The country currently has an average of 63 deaths a day. The percentage remained stable in early May, after rising steadily in April. However, the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases resulted in a total of more than 3.84 million cases in the country and more than 40,600 deaths.
As of May 19, more than 84,952,660 doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Canada.
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Read more: COVID-19 deaths worldwide are declining, but are on the rise: WHO
To date, nearly 35 million Canadians have received at least one approved COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 31 million Canadians have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in two doses.
Since being authorized in September 2021, 18,610,469 booster doses have been administered, according to available provincial and territorial data, meaning that 48.7% of the Canadian population has received three doses.
As of May 19, 90.4% of eligible Canadians aged five and over had received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 86.2% had been fully vaccinated with two vaccines. Vaccinations for children aged five to 11 were approved by Health Canada last November.
“With files from Sean Boynton.”
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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