Reinfection rate in a cohort of healthcare workers over 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic

In this large cohort of healthcare workers, we aimed to estimate the rate of reinfections by SARS-CoV-2 over 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the proportion of reinfections among all the cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection from March 10, 2020 until March 10, 2022. Reinfection was defined...

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Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 712 - 5
Main Authors: Guedes, Ana Rubia, Oliveira, Maura S., Tavares, Bruno M., Luna-Muschi, Alessandra, Lazari, Carolina dos Santos, Montal, Amanda C., de Faria, Elizabeth, Maia, Fernando Liebhart, Barboza, Antonio dos Santos, Leme, Mariana Deckers, Tomazini, Francis M., Costa, Silvia Figueiredo, Levin, Anna S.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 13.01.2023
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
631/326/2521
692/699/255/2514
Brazil - epidemiology
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Health care
Health Personnel
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Medical personnel
multidisciplinary
Pandemics
Polymerase chain reaction
Reinfection - epidemiology
SARS-CoV-2 - genetics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Brazil
ISSN:2045-2322, 2045-2322
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Summary:In this large cohort of healthcare workers, we aimed to estimate the rate of reinfections by SARS-CoV-2 over 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the proportion of reinfections among all the cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection from March 10, 2020 until March 10, 2022. Reinfection was defined as the appearance of new symptoms that on medical evaluation were suggestive of COVID-19 and confirmed by a positive RT-PCR. Symptoms had to occur more than 90 days after the previous infection. These 2 years were divided into time periods based on the different variants of concern (VOC) in the city of São Paulo. There were 37,729 medical consultations due to COVID-19 at the hospital’s Health Workers Services; and 25,750 RT-PCR assays were performed, of which 23% (n = 5865) were positive. Reinfection by SARS-CoV-2 was identified in 5% (n = 284) of symptomatic cases. Most cases of reinfection occurred during the Omicron period (n = 251; 88%), representing a significant increase on the SARS-CoV-2 reinfection rate before and during the Omicron variant period (0.8% vs. 4.3%; p  < 0.001). The mean interval between SARS-CoV-2 infections was 429 days (ranged from 122 to 674). The Omicron variant spread faster than Gamma and Delta variant. All SARS-CoV-2 reinfections were mild cases.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-25908-6