19 October,2020 08:06 AM IST | London | Agencies
Customers sit in a restaurant in Moscow, Russia, on Friday. Pic/AP
The UK government's senior scientific advisers have warned that reinfections with COVID-19 are "to be expected" as the novel coronavirus spreads and that the timeframe between each infection may be "relatively short".
According to a paper by the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, released by the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, it remains unclear at what point recovered people become vulnerable to reinfection but the prospect of reinfections does exist based on human response to other kinds of coronaviruses, such as those behind flu and common cold. It, therefore, throws the concept of any long-term immunity from COVID-19 without a viable vaccine into serious doubt.
"Based on knowledge of other coronaviruses, reinfection is to be expected, although at present the point at which an individual is likely to be susceptible to reinfection is not known," notes the paper. "In cases that have begun to be reported, the time to reinfection in an individual has been relatively short. Where this is the case, genomics is required to demonstrate that the virus from the two infections is not the same, providing evidence to rule out recrudescence," it reads.
Another 16,171 cases were confirmed in the UK this weekend, with 150 deaths.
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On Friday night in Moscow, bars and restaurants were packed. No one except the staff was wearing a mask. On Friday, Russian authorities reported over 15,000 new cases, the highest daily spike so far. But there is little indication at all that Russia is being swept by a resurgence of cases. Authorities in Russia are also resisting shutting down businesses again. Even these soaring virus tolls are likely undercounts, experts have cautioned.
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