Covid reinfections in the UK: how likely are you to catch coronavirus again?

Recent UK data suggests that the BA.4 and BA.5 Covid variant are starting to cause infections.

How common are Covid reinfections?

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that since the arrival of Omicron, the rate of reinfections has increased by 15 times.

The virus has evolved to evade some of the immune defences that protect against it, making it more likely that it will re-invade.

Danny Altmann is a professor of immunology at Imperial College London. It's poorly immunogenic, which means that catching it won't protect you against catching it again. Further evidence of the marginal ability of prior Omicron to prime any immune memory for BA.4 or 5 has been found.

The virus has evolved to become more transmissible, meaning that even brief exposure to an infectious person can cause you to be exposed to the virus.

If I had Omicron at Christmas or at the start of 2022, am I likely to catch it again?

A lot of people who got Covid at the start of the year are getting it again, including some who thought they would be protected.

One reason why people need to log their symptoms is because we don't have enough data to work out when the susceptible periods are. It used to be rare within six months but that is not the case anymore.

Are some people more susceptible to reinfection than others?

Young, unvaccinated people with mild disease were most likely to get re infections with the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant. Covid-19 vaccine provides a substantial added layer of protection against reinfection, according to other studies.

If you were exposed to Omicron during the earlier waves, your immune response is unlikely to have been strengthened because it is a poor booster of immunity.

Will my symptoms be milder the second time around?

The infections should be less severe the second, third or fourth time around because people should have some residual immunity. There are exceptions to this. Some people are getting it for longer than before.

He said it's too early to know about the risk of long Covid associated with BA.4/5.

Should we be wearing masks again?

The UK is about to enter a period dominated by BA.4 and 5. The country where a moderately successful third immunity booster campaign is now long past, with waves of Omicron through to the emergence of BA.4/5, is in a serious situation.

We should all consider ourselves to be essentially protected, except from intensive care unit admission and death, and then, as before, with the risks increasing with age.

Additional layers of protection are provided by face masks and ventilating. "I still wear a mask, but not a cheap one, I wear a proper FFP2 or 3 mask." When as many as one in 30 people have it again, it's a good idea to wear a mask.