Fully vaccinated HCW tests positive for delta and omicron just 20 days apart
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LISBON, Portugal — A fully vaccinated and boosted health care worker tested positive for the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 just 20 days after testing positive for the delta variant, researchers reported here.
The case demonstrates omicron’s ability to evade previous immunity, they said.
Gemma Recio, MD, of the Institut Català de Salut in Tarragona, Spain, and colleagues presented the case at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
The conference said in a press release publicizing the report that it was the shortest known gap between SARS-CoV-2 infections.
“This case highlights the potential of the omicron variant to evade the previous immunity acquired either from a natural infection with other variants or from vaccines,” Recio said in the release. “In other words, people who have had COVID-19 cannot assume they are protected against reinfection, even if they have been fully vaccinated.”
The woman, aged 31 years, had received a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine 12 days before testing positive for the delta variant on Dec. 20, 2021. She was asymptomatic at the time, Recio and colleagues reported. On Jan. 10, she reported having a cough and fever and tested positive again, this time for the omicron variant.
“This case also underscores the need to carry out genomic surveillance of viruses in infections in those who are fully vaccinated and in reinfections,” Recio said. “Such monitoring will help detect variants with the ability to partially evade the immune response.”
It is difficult to draw much of a conclusion from a single-person study, but it does highlight how different omicron is from the earlier variants with respect to immunogenicity. It lends further support for developing an omicron-specific booster, which is currently being tested.
Perspective
Back to TopNathaniel R. Landau, PhD
It is difficult to draw much of a conclusion from a single-person study, but it does highlight how different omicron is from the earlier variants with respect to immunogenicity. It lends further support for developing an omicron-specific booster, which is currently being tested.
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Recio G, et al. L0438. Presented at: European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases; April 23-26, 2022; Lisbon, Portugal (hybrid meeting).
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