<\/p>
We are seeing more people getting COVID-19 a second, third or fourth time. Often it is months between infections, but\u00a0some people\u00a0can catch it again\u00a0within\u00a0a few\u00a0weeks.\u00a0The likelihood of this occurring depends on\u00a0two\u00a0factors:\u00a0how your immune system responds to the infection;\u00a0and what variants are spreading locally.<\/p>\n
For most people,\u00a0the\u00a0infection generates an\u00a0immune response that lasts\u00a0three to 12\u00a0months. After that, some people are more likely to\u00a0be infected again, unless immunity is boosted\u00a0with\u00a0vaccination<\/a>.\u00a0The reason that some people\u00a0catch it\u00a0again\u00a0within\u00a0a few\u00a0weeks\u00a0is down\u00a0to local\u00a0virus transmission.<\/p>\n During\u00a0the pandemic,\u00a0some\u00a0communities have had two or more variants spreading\u00a0(like Delta<\/a> and Omicron), with\u00a0immunity from one not protecting from\u00a0the other. Some\u00a0people\u00a0were\u00a0re-infected in less than 90 days,\u00a0with\u00a0one person catching it again after\u00a023 days.<\/p>\n This is why COVID precautions are so important, even after being infected or vaccinated.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Asked by: Bella Jacobs, Salisbury<\/strong><\/p>\n To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don\u2019t forget to include your name and location)<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Dr Jeremy Rossman Published: Sunday, 11 December 2022 at 12:00 am We are seeing more people getting COVID-19 a second, third or fourth time. Often it is months between infections, but\u00a0some people\u00a0can catch it again\u00a0within\u00a0a few\u00a0weeks.\u00a0The likelihood of this occurring depends on\u00a0two\u00a0factors:\u00a0how your immune system responds to the infection;\u00a0and what variants are spreading locally. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21188,"template":"","categories":[30],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/how-soon-after-having-covid-can-you-catch-it-again.jpg",1200,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/how-soon-after-having-covid-can-you-catch-it-again-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/how-soon-after-having-covid-can-you-catch-it-again-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/how-soon-after-having-covid-can-you-catch-it-again-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/how-soon-after-having-covid-can-you-catch-it-again-1024x436.jpg",800,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/how-soon-after-having-covid-can-you-catch-it-again.jpg",1200,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/12\/how-soon-after-having-covid-can-you-catch-it-again.jpg",1200,511,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Dr Jeremy Rossman Published: Sunday, 11 December 2022 at 12:00 am We are seeing more people getting COVID-19 a second, third or fourth time. Often it is months between infections, but\u00a0some people\u00a0can catch it again\u00a0within\u00a0a few\u00a0weeks.\u00a0The likelihood of this occurring depends on\u00a0two\u00a0factors:\u00a0how your immune system responds to the infection;\u00a0and what variants are spreading locally.…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/21187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"