Three patients found to have had COVID-19 twice in Australian first
GPs are being urged to encourage coronavirus patients to be vaccinated in the wake of the reinfections
Three unlucky Melburnians managed to be infected with COVID-19 twice, in what public health experts say are the first confirmed cases of reinfection in Australia.
The three household members, all aged in their twenties, first became infected with SARS-CoV-2 in late July 2020 in Victoria’s second wave.
They tested positive to the virus for the second time during the July 2021 Delta wave, wrote Professor Benjamin Howden, Director of the Public Health Laboratory at the University of Melbourne and colleagues.
Genomic sequencing revealed their 2020 infections were caused by a variant not of concern (pangolin lineage) while their 2021 infections were due to the Delta variant.
