Covid today Italy and reinfections. With the rise and domination of the Omicron variant, the attention of health institutions has intensified on episodes of people who had already infected with the virus and who have taken it again. But who is most at risk? “In the last week, the percentage of Covid reinfections out of the total reported cases was 3.3%, stable compared to the previous week”. This is the latest update that emerges from the extended report of the Higher Institute of Health (Iss), ‘Covid-19: surveillance, impact of infections and vaccination efficacy’.
The document also makes it possible to trace a sort of ‘identikit’ of the groups that show a greater probability of falling back into a new infection: unvaccinated women, people for whom a long time has passed since the first infection, young people, health workers. “The analysis of the risk of reinfection starting from 6 December 2021 (the date considered to be the reference date for the start of the spread of the Omicron variant) shows an increase in the adjusted relative risk of reinfection (values significantly greater than 1)” for those who had the “first Covid diagnosis notified for over 210 days compared to those who had the first diagnosis between the previous 90 and 210 days; in unvaccinated or vaccinated with at least 1 dose for over 120 days, compared to vaccinated with at least one dose within 120 days; in females compared to males “.
For this last point, the ISS explains that “the greater risk in female subjects may probably be due to the greater presence of women in school (over 80%) where an intense screening activity is carried out and to the fact that women perform the role of caregiver in the family more often. Other groups for which the risk is increased are “the younger age groups (from 12 to 49 years) compared to people with the first diagnosis between the ages of 50- 59 years old. Probably the greater risk of reinfection in the younger age groups is attributable to higher risk behaviors and exposures, compared to the age groups over 60 years. “Finally, health workers are more at risk than the rest of the population. In general in Italy, from 24 August 2021 to 9 March 2022, 251,633 cases of reinfection were reported, equal to 3% of the total number of cases notified.