Fully Vaccinated Health Worker Gets Infected With Two COVID-19 Variants Within Record 20 Days

A fully vaccinated health worker in Spain tested positive for two variants of COVID-19 within three weeks, the shortest known gap between the infections, reports said.

The 31-year-old unidentified woman, who was fully vaccinated with a booster shot, caught the Omicron variant of the infection just 20 days after she tested positive for the Delta variant, according to a case study from Spanish researchers.

The woman was showing no symptoms when she first tested positive on Dec. 20, 2021, about 12 days after taking a booster shot of the vaccine. The positive test result came during a routine screening at her work, and she went into self-isolation for ten days before returning to work.

However, on Jan. 10, 2022, she developed a cough and fever and took a PCR test after feeling unwell, and the test again turned positive.

Meanwhile, genome sequencing revealed that the woman was infected by two different COVID-19 variants, first with Delta and later with the Omicron variant.

Omicron is considered more infectious than Delta and found to evade immunity acquired from vaccinations and past infections. It was identified on Nov. 26, 2021, and has become the dominant variant all over the world.

Experts said the woman's case indicates that people can get reinfected multiple times even after they are fully vaccinated against the virus, NYPost reported.

"This case highlights the potential of the Omicron variant to evade the previous immunity acquired either from natural infection with other variants or from vaccines. In other words, people who have had COVID-19 cannot assume they are protected against reinfection, even if they have been fully vaccinated," said Dr. Gemma Recio of the Institut Català de Salut of Tarragona in Spain, who was one of the authors of the case study.

"Nevertheless, both previous infection with other variants and vaccination do seem to partially protect against severe disease and hospitalization in those with Omicron," she added.

The reports of COVID-19 reinfections surged in December 2021 after the emergence of a more infectious Omicron variant. Dr. Recio also observed that it is important to monitor reinfections in fully vaccinated people as it would help researchers find out about the variants which evade vaccines.