There are cases of people who have been COVID positive more than once: Govt tells Rajya Sabha

There are cases of people who have been reported COVID-19 positive more than once, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. She was responding to a question on whether there are cases of people been reported as COVID-19 positive more than once.

In a written reply, she said, "There are cases which have been reported as COVID-19 positive more than once.

"SARS- CoV-2 re-infection has been published at Journal of Epidemiology and Infection, Cambridge University Press."

The study has concluded that while COVID-19 re-infection is still rarely reported, nonetheless, immunity should not be assumed and public health measures such as physical distancing, hand-hygiene and use of masks should be followed after recovery from first event of infection, Pawar said.

In response to a question on the total number of people who have tested positive more than once, she said, "The currently available tests and current knowledge do not tell us about the duration of immunity and protection against reinfection which is required to differentiate reinfection from persistent virus shedding since the number of people tested positive more than once does not necessarily indicate re-infection."

In view of the above, the current isolation, quarantine, treatment, and other public health measures remain valid in case of re-infections also.