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More than two-thirds of Omicron cases are reinfections, a study suggests

More than two-thirds of Omicron cases are reinfections, a study suggests
Omicron has almost completely replaced the dominant delta variant in England, has found a new study, with the vast majority of cases being re-infections.

The Imperial College London REACT study analyzed 100,607 PCR test results from across England. The tampons were collected between January 5th and January 20th.

The study found that 99% of the positive tests listed came from people infected with the omicron variant, with only 1% of infections caused by the delta variant.

"We observed unprecedented levels of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England in January 2022 and almost complete replacement of the delta with omicron ," said the study authors in their paper published Wednesday.

Ability for reinfection

Two-thirds of the 3,582 participants who tested positive in January reported that they had already tested positive for Covid in the past. Another 7.5% of infected participants said they suspected they had had the virus before, but had not confirmed this with a test.

When previous variants of Covid circulated among the population, it was thought that a previous Covid infection, in which humans had contracted the virus and were cured, could offer some protection against reinfection. But there is concern that this is not the case with omicron, with UK health officials estimating in December that the risk of omicron reinfection is 5.4 times greater than it is with the delta variant.

The researchers noted on Wednesday that omicron infectivity had now led to the highest Covid prevalence ever observed in the REACT study.

"Vaccination (including the boost campaign) remains the mainstay of protection against Covid-19 given the high levels of protection against hospitalizations," the research team said.