Increasing numbers of people are reporting their second infection as high COVID-19 case numbers continue to be recorded in NSW.
With her daughter wearing a jumper in bed under two blankets, complaining of flu symptoms, Kara Lee knew all the signs were there.
She said she wouldn’t be surprised if more people in her family were reinfected, as her four children attended three different schools. “We didn’t even isolate [from each other in the house] this time – there’s no point.”A NSW Health spokesperson was unable to provide the number of people who have had COVID-19 twice, but said they were “aware of cases where people have been reinfected with the virus that causes COVID-19”.
“The chance of Omicron reinfection is very low,” said Deakin University chair of epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett, citing the Danish study and also booster uptake. Hayley Edwards, from Bankstown, caught COVID-19 for the first time in August, before she had been vaccinated. Since then, the 28-year-old has lived with ongoing symptoms after her infection. “Things don’t taste and smell the way that I know food and drinks should,” she said.
“It is certainly uncommon to get severely ill, as in go to hospital, or die from a reinfection. But that’s not to say people don’t feel unwell for four or five days.”