Yasmina Kattou 06:08, February 22, 2022

The number of people reinfected with Covid-19 has exploded since December 1.

We speak of reinfection when a person has tested positive two months apart.

While 416,995 possible cases of reinfection were identified between March 2021 and January 2022, the vast majority of reinfections took place with the arrival of the Omicron wave.

Of nearly 417,000 reinfections recorded between March 2, 2021 and January 27, 2022, 92% of people reinfected with Covid-19 have been so since December 1.

This represents more than 384,000 cases of reinfection.

This is revealed by Public Health France data.

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The health agency speaks of reinfection when a person has been recontaminated 60 days apart.

Two categories are particularly concerned: young people aged 18 to 40 represent more than half of the cases (52%).

Health professionals are also more affected than the rest of the population.

Omicron, an extremely contagious variant

This would be explained by a lesser application of the barrier gestures said Public Health France, but above all by the very high contagiousness of Omicron.

Indeed, 79% of possible cases of reinfection are due to this variant according to screening data.

More generally, to explain this phenomenon, Public Health France evokes a drop in immunity after vaccination or after an infection.

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These data are underestimated, says the health agency, which did not count the possible reinfections for the year 2020. PCR tests were then very little available in France.