‘Unlucky’ young woman gets Covid twice in one month

Reinfection of Covid is rare, especially within the same month, but it’s not impossible. This young Sydneysider found out for herself.

When Sydneysider Nat Sorensen recovered from Covid at the start of the year, she thought she was at least safe from the virus for a month.

That was until the 18-year-old tested positive again - less than three weeks after leaving isolation.

“I was shocked,” she told news.com.au. “It’s pretty unlucky.”

While it is rare to catch Covid twice, especially within the same month, experts say it’s not impossible.

The otherwise healthy teenager, who is vaccinated with two doses, got her first positive PCR test result back on January 5, after being exposed to Covid at work.

She described her symptoms as “intense”, including shortness of breath on top of usual flu-like symptoms.

After her isolation period was up and she had recovered, Ms Sorensen said she did a rapid antigen test that returned a negative result.

But just a few weeks later she developed symptoms again and a positive PCR test last Saturday confirmed she had Covid for a second time.

“I only got tested again because I got symptoms again,” she explained, adding that they were more mild than the first time.

“After I got it the first time I thought ‘I’ve got immunity, I’m not getting Covid for a few months.

“I was under the impression everyone around me could get it and I’m not going to get it because I’ve already had it, and then I got it again so soon.”

Nat Sorensen tested positive to Covid at the start and end of January.

NSW Health advise that people who have recovered from Covid have a low risk of getting it again in the 28 days after isolation as most people develop some immunity.

While the time frame is up for debate, experts recently told news.com.au they believe this is likely a conservative approach and immunity could last for months.

The rule in NSW is if you come into contact with someone with Covid within 28 days after you are released from isolation, you do not need to isolate or get a test unless you have symptoms.

Sorensen shared her experience on TikTok with people in the comments claiming to share similar experiences. Picture: TikTok / @nat.sorensen

She is usually an active 18-year-old but said her first Covid symptoms were "intense". Picture: Instagram

Ms Sorensen posted a video on TikTok saying she had tested positive for the second time this year and it was only January.

Her comments were flooded with people sharing that they had been in the same situation and others debating why she had tested positive twice.

How is reinfection possible?

One reason for a person being reinfected is that they may have caught two different strains, which is especially a possibility while Delta and Omicron are in the community.

“You could have a delta infection at a party and then you’re still vulnerable to omicron anyway,” professor Catherine Bennett, Epidemiology chair at Deakin University, told ABC TV.

“So it’s still possible to have reinfections. That’s how we discovered Omicron. It was doing that in South Africa. It only just cleared its major wave with delta and they were seeing a lot of (Omicron) cases in people that had had a Delta infection.”

Professor Catherine Bennett said you can be reinfected with a different strain of Covid. Picture: ABC TV

Looking specifically at testing, PCR tests can detect fragments of the virus for about two to three weeks for an average person, but it can be even longer for people who had severe disease and longer again for immunocompromised people.

Professor Tony Cunningham, an infectious diseases physician, clinical virologist and scientist from The University of Sydney, recently told news.com.au how studies have revealed people with positive PCR tests for a long time (excluding the immunocompromised) were not infectious.

It means people without symptoms are likely not infectious even if they continue to test positive on a PCR weeks after their first result.

“I think that’s the thing to reassure people about. The test is very sensitive. It’s designed to pick up virus shedding as early as possible but in doing that it’s a little bit too sensitive to measure prolonged infectiousness,” Prof Cunningham said.