The Government on Tuesday said there are three novel coronavirus re-infection cases — two in Mumbai and one in Ahemedabad — identified in the country which are being studied by the Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR), a research wing of the Union Health Ministry.
Re-infection cases are those cases where people contract the deadly virus for the second time after being cured. This means that even people who have had Covid-19 earlier need to take the same precautions as everyone else. Some studies said patients showed more severe symptoms in the second re-infection.
The premier health research agency ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava at a Press briefing here pointed out that such cases of re-infection of the virus were a few, one in Ahmedabad and two in Mumbai.
“As per World Health Organisation (WHO) data, there are about 24 re-infection cases in the world. The criteria to identify a re-infection case is somewhere between 90 and 100 days. The WHO has not yet decided the number of days. However, we’re taking cut-off of about 100 days,” said Dr Bhargava.
His comments came days after Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “Though there are sporadic reports of re-infection surfacing in various States, careful analysis of ICMR database reveals that many of these cases have actually been misclassified as re-infections.”
Dr Vardhan said re-infection cases are under investigation. He said such cases in India were negligible at the moment and were being studied by an expert panel of ICMR.
The first instance of coronavirus infection was recorded in Hong Kong when a 33-year-old man, who was initially infected with the coronavirus in March and made a full recovery, was re-infected more than four months later after a trip abroad, researchers reported in August.
The Lancet Infectious Diseases on Tuesday reported another confirmed case of the Covid re-infection, but a first in the US wherein a resident of Washoe County in Nevada was tested positive on April 18. During follow-up, he tested negative twice in May, but tested positive on June 5.
The Lancet stated the patient showed more severe symptoms in the second re-infection.