The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is devising protocols for diagnosing and treating COVID-19 reinfections, which it would likely define as being infected a second time with a different SARS-CoV-2 variant or subvariant, it said yesterday.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), the CECC’s acting spokesman and medical response division deputy head, told a news briefing in Taipei that it is forming the protocols following a review with experts the previous day.
About one to three people out of 10,000 are at risk of being reinfected with COVID-19 three months after their initial infection, Lo said, citing research from around the world.
Photo courtesy of the CECC
That risk is too low to justify compulsory rapid testing of people two weeks to three months after they recover from COVID-19, he said, adding that a minimum interval for reinfection has not yet been determined and no accepted international standard has emerged.
The UK and the US define reinfection as a person testing positive a second time in 90 days, while the EU defines it as a person testing positive again within 60 days, he said.
The CECC is considering defining reinfection as testing positive within one to three months after an initial infection, along with other criteria based on the person’s symptoms, viral load and genetic sequencing, he said.
A reinfected person would likely be allowed to take oral antivirals, but details of the policy have not been finalized, he said.
People who experience a relapse of COVID-19 symptoms — who are excluded from the reinfection protocols — would not see changes in their antiviral regime or mandatory quarantine period, he said.
The protocol must distinguish reinfection from relapse, as COVID-19 reinfection is serious and requires medical intervention, while people who relapse typically recover on their own, he said.
People who experience a temporary increase in viral load from seven to 13 days after taking antivirals, which occurs in 1 to 2 percent of cases globally, would not be categorized as being reinfected, he said.
People who have test negative in between testing positive, but report a lower viral load than before, would also be excluded from the designation, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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