Two cases that may be investigated include people who may or may not exhibit symptoms similar to COVID-19 in 90 days or more, or in 45 to 89 days after initial infection or illness, along with other requirements.
Generally, reinfection is when someone was infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, recovered, and then became infected again at a later time.
Researchers claim that it is important to study reinfections to have a better understanding of the virus, but say the occurrences are not a serious concern unless they become more common or lead to severe disease symptoms.
According to c19study.com, a webpage tracking COVID-19 studies worldwide, early treatment in “100 percent of studies report positive effects, [and] 64 percent is the median improvement.” There was only a 24 percent median improvement in late treatments. Remdesivir is the only drug that is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for hospitalized patients.
The CDC also stated on its webpage that “confirmed and suspected cases of reinfection of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been reported, but remain rare.”
So far, out of 45 million cases worldwide, only six cases have been scientifically proven to be COVID-19 reinfection.
“So far, nothing indicates that people are getting reinfected all the time, much less getting enhanced disease during their second bout with COVID-19,” Rasmussen says.
“When a pandemic infects millions of people worldwide, we expect to see rare events emerge. Even though our immune systems work in generally the same way, we are all different and respond to infections in our own unique and special ways.”
While many suspected reinfections are less severe than the first infection, as is common in other coronavirus infections, a few cases have shown to be the opposite.
Authors of the case study say they don’t know why the patient displayed more severe symptoms when reinfected.
The patient’s case is not a common experience for most people who get COVID-19 since the man had symptoms for a little over a month during his first infection.
Cycle Threshold Value
In the updated guidance, a PRC test cycle threshold value of 33 cycles was indicated for who is considered positive during a second infection. This is the first time that a threshold value has been specified by the CDC.
The cycle threshold value is the number of amplifications it takes the test machine to detect the virus’s genetic material, providing valuable information on whether a person is infectious or at risk of severe symptoms from COVID-19.
Knowing the cycle threshold of a PCR test allows government and public health officials to better gauge if there is a serious spread of the virus occurring in an area and take appropriate action, instead of only resorting to lockdowns.
“It’s critical that we balance our response to new cases with common sense and avoid the damaging consequences—in lives, money, and scientific credibility—of a second national lockdown,” Gold says.
There is no universal standard cutoff cycle threshold value for the PCR tests being used throughout the country for a positive diagnosis. All test centers use the manufacturers’ threshold value, with many found to be 40 cycles or higher.
A threshold value cutoff of 40 cycles is considered by many medical experts to return false positives, as fragments of a dead virus may be picked up. Lower threshold values mean more viral loads.
What the cycle threshold cutoff value should be varied in discussions among the scientific community, but generally ranges between 25 and 30 with an agreement that patients cannot be contagious above these numbers.
