The suspicion that a person can be infected with the virus more than once is irrelevant from now on.
Twice in five months a man in Hong Kong had a Covid positive confirmation. This is the first reinfection of Covid-19 that has been reported in the country.
The man above 30 was first infected five months back for Covid-19. He was hospitalized for 14 days after being confirmed.
However, four and a half months later after recovering from the first infection, he again tested positive for coivid-19.
He had no symptoms of the virus when he was tested positive during the airport screening.
Dr Kelvin Kai-Wang To, clinical associate professor at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, said: “this case shows that patients recovered from COVID-19 can get reinfected. Therefore, the immunity against COVID-19 is not lifelong.”
He said that re-infection could happen to anyone, and in this case, he had no symptoms, and that the diagnosis had been made because of the airport screening.
“Since the immunity can be short-lasting after natural infection, vaccination should also be considered for those with one episode of infection,” he added.
Researchers in Hong Kong are now analyzing the consequences of the reinfection of COVID-19 on the young man.
So far, only 4,700 Covid cases have been confirmed in Hong Kong. While 28,116 cases have registered in neighboring Ireland.
Reinfection news comes as the Acting Chief Medical Officer, Ronan Glynn, warned about the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Dublin. Total 147 new cases have been reported in Ireland, of which 73 were from Dublin.
‘There isn’t one particular area. It is slightly higher in Dublin west, Dublin north-west and Dublin north-central but it is spread across the capital,’ Glynn said.