Last year, it seemed as though coronavirus reinfections were rare. Yes, they happened, but the vast majority of people who had already had COVID likely wouldn’t contract the virus again anytime soon.
But recent data suggest reinfections are becoming more common, especially as new variants take hold. New York’s health department recently published a report that shows a little over 4% of all COVID infections in the state have been reinfections — and that nearly 87% of them have occurred since December 2021. Washington state reported that 45,312 people had reported a reinfection since September 2021 — 2.3% of those were hospitalized and 0.2% died.
