With the coronavirus pandemic having dragged on for more than two years, millions of people across the country have had the virus at some point.
Even though Covid has been a fact of life over the last couple of years, there’s still quite a lot we don’t know about it. As a result, we've been left with lots of questions; one that’s had a lot of people worrying is whether you can catch the virus again after having it - and, if so, how quickly.
So, here’s what we know so far about Covid reinfection - including whether you can catch it more than once and how quickly you might contract it again.
READ MORE: What is the incubation period for Covid - and how long is Omicron's incubation period?
Can you catch Covid more than once?
Yes, you can catch Covid more than once - potentially multiple times, in fact. Research suggests Omicron is able to escape previous immunity acquired through infection.
Omicron also has a higher degree of vaccine escape than other coronavirus variants, though booster jabs are effective at replenishing antibodies and reducing the risk of symptomatic infection.
When you have your vaccine or contract the virus, your body’s immune system develops antibodies which help to protect against future infection.
However, what we don’t know for certain is just how long this protection is likely to last. We know that it does wane over time, increasing the risk of reinfection in people who’ve already had the virus before.
According to an analysis carried out by the UK Health Security Agency in December, about one in 10 people who’d had Omicron by that point had previously been infected with Covid.
Researchers from Imperial College London, meanwhile, found that Omicron largely evaded immunity previously acquired via infection with the coronavirus or from two vaccine doses.
However, another study from researchers in Melbourne and Hong Kong found that the immune system’s T-cells provide, in effect, a second layer of protection against Covid even where the virus evades antibodies.
How quickly can you catch Covid again?
We don’t know precisely how long people who’ve had Covid are protected against reinfection afterwards.
In all likelihood, it will vary from person to person. The precise duration of protection against the coronavirus is likely to be affected by a number of factors, including the precise viral load in each individual patient.
Can you catch Omicron twice?
As the Omicron variant hasn’t yet been with us for very long, there’s a lot we don’t yet know about it. However, it is very likely that you can catch it multiple times, as with other variants.
Omicron is particularly transmissible, which gives it an advantage over other Covid variants. It also has multiple mutations when compared to earlier variants, which is why it has a higher degree of escape from previous immunity acquired through infection and vaccines.
It does appear that the Omicron variant generally causes less severe illness, particularly in people who already have some prior immunity to Covid.
But Omicron was only discovered by scientists in South Africa on November 24th, with the first UK case confirmed three days later.
As such, it’s still too early to say exactly how long it’ll be before you can catch Omicron again if you’ve already had it once.
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