It is similar but even more infectious than the BA.1 variant which took hold in Britain just before Christmas. Part of the reason for this is the aforementioned new variant of Omicron, named BA.2. However, given that testing has been down recently and only looks to get worse now that lateral flow tests are no longer freely available to the general public, these figures could be an undercount. So far there’s no data on how many people are on their fifth turn. In the most recent week of data, the seven days before 20 March, 50,866 people in the country have recorded a second infection, 8,717 are on their third and 74 are on their fourth episode. What’s interesting is that, according to the UK Health Security Agency, reinfections are making up a good portion of these. New data from the Office Of National statistics shows that infections are on the up in Britain, with just over 4.9 million Britons infected in the week leading up to 26 March – around one in every 13 people. Still, perhaps it’s not quite as surprising as it seems. “I've never come across anyone who has had it five times,” Prof Denis Kinane of the University Of Bern, and founder of Covid screening service Cignpost Diagnostics, tells me.
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So how common are multiple reinfections like mine? I should probably also count myself lucky that, at 28, I’ve been young and healthy enough to fight off the virus every time I’ve had it, even before I was fully vaccinated. I wore my mask on public transport for as long as it was mandated and stopped when it wasn’t – not for ideological reasons, more that I’m still incredibly prone to forgetting and losing masks. I wish I could tell you that this is because I spent the pandemic living life to the max, attending illicit raves and refusing to kowtow to the overzealous police enforcement but, for the most part, I’ve just gone with the flow and stuck to the rules. and guess what happened? Presumably, this one is the new version of Omicron, BA.2 which is now dominant in the UK. Perhaps the booster hadn’t had time to kick in yet, although experts say the vaccine doesn’t actually seem to do much to prevent you from catching the virus – it’s more about preventing serious illness.Īnd then last week I got what I thought was the early onset of hayfever, only to be told a recent contact had tested positive and I should probably break out the lateral flows again. There was some suggestion at the time that the infection might have been bad because it came about two weeks after I had my first jab.įive weeks after I recovered when I went to get my second vaccine, the doctor explained the antibodies created from having the jab, combined with those from the active infection, were probably battling it out within my body.Īll was clear ahead of my booster vaccine in mid-December until, just after Christmas, I got what I assumed was a cold but the tests came up positive – hello, Omicron – but I was already back to normal by the time work resumed in January. I was laid up in bed for a week with immense pressure headaches which felt like someone was pushing shards of glass into my brain. That one, presumably Delta, was horrible. I’d been invited to the Wimbledon Men’s Final and, despite everyone having to present a negative test on entry, it seems someone managed to give it to me there. I wouldn’t have known I’d had it if a friend I’d been for a walk with hadn’t prompted me to test after he came up positive.
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The second one, around October 2020, was much the same. My first infection was towards the end of April 2020 and I didn’t even realise I had it at the time it wasn’t until I found myself coughing and spluttering after running 100 metres out of my front door – which felt odd as I’d done a half-marathon just a few weeks earlier. Since late April 2020, I’ve had the virus not once, not twice, but five separate times. That sounds quite exciting, but unfortunately, the thing that marks me out is my unrivalled ability to catch Covid.