Omricon variant more likely to cause reinfection than delta: Study

Cape Town : A team of researchers in South Africa said they have found some evidence that people who had been infected once with Covid were more likely to be reinfected with the Omicron variant than with the Beta or Delta variants.
According to CNN, the research team said it is too soon to know for sure, but a recent spike in second infections indicates to them that Omicron is more likely to reinfect people.
“Contrary to our expectations and experience with the previous variants, we are now experiencing an increase in the risk of reinfection that exceeds our prior experience,” Juliet Pulliam from Stellenbosch University was quoted as saying.
Omicron was only identified in November but has worried the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other global health officials, who have designated it a variant of concern because of its many mutations affecting areas associated with transmissibility and ability to evade the immune system.
Pulliam and her colleagues looked at reports of infections covering 2.7 million people in South Africa since the beginning of the pandemic, including more than 35,000 people diagnosed more than once with Covid-19.
“We identified 35,670 individuals with at least two suspected infections (through 27 November 2021), 332 individuals with suspected third infections, and one individual with four suspected infections,” they wrote in their report, posted online in a preprint.