COPENHAGEN: Coronavirus – People above 65 are more likely to catch COVID-19 twice, says Lancet study

COPENHAGEN: While COVID-19 vaccination is
going on in full swing, studies are still being conducted to know more about
the virus. One such study published on Wednesday found that people over the age
of 65 are more likely to be reinfected with COVID-19.

The study

The study was published in The Lancet and looked at
the data collected in Denmark between February and December 2020. For the
study, around 4 million people took around 10 million PCR tests to check for
COVID-19 infection.

The result

The authors of the study found that the general
population has around 80 per cent protection from the virus, once infected. The
protection rate dropped to 47 per cent for people over the age of 65.

The
authors of the study looked for the records of people who took PCR tests in
both the first wave of COVID-19 in Denmark, between March and May and during
the second wave, between September and December.

The study
compared people who tested positive twice to people who tested positive only
once.

In line
with the previous findings, the authors found that the rate of infection was
very low, less than 1 per cent among the general population. Antibodies
provided them with protection for at least 6 months.

The rate
of protection was found to be only 47 per cent among people over the age of 65.

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​Limitations of the study

It is
possible that the PCR tests picked up lingering traces of the virus, which
showed the reports positive and not a genuine reinfection.

The data
does not inform about the risk of reinfection by variants, some of which are
thought to evade immunity. For example, the P.1. variant, which was first found
in Brazil is thought to be able to reinfect people who have had the disease
before.