‘Genomic analysis showed the two viral agents were genetically distinct’
Protecting Yourself from Coronavirus (May 2020)
By Ed Payne | October 13, 2020 at 11:48 AM EDT – Updated October 13 at 12:00 PM
(Gray News) – A 25-year-old Nevada man is the first known person in North America to catch coronavirus twice, researchers say.
The man first tested positive for COVID-19 in April and then tested positive again in June.
“The second infection was symptomatically more severe than the first,” The Lancet reported. “Genomic analysis showed the two viral agents were genetically distinct,” meaning it was a different version of the virus, not a continuation of the original infection.
Globally, there are only three other known cases of COVID-19 reinfection that have been published in medical journals.
Scientists are uncertain how much immunity patients infected with coronavirus develop and what the likelihood of reinfection is.
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