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LONDON, Oct 17 (Xinhua) – British government scientific advisers warned that reinfections with COVID-19 are “to be expected” as the virus continues to spread in the country, local media reported on Monday.
The COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium researchers’ conclusion is based on what is known about people’s immunity to other coronaviruses that cause the common cold, according to a report by The Guardian newspaper on Saturday.
It was unclear how soon people who had recovered from COVID-19 might become vulnerable to reinfection, but emerging reports showed the time period to be “relatively short,” the report said.
Currently, there are seven types of coronavirus that infect humans. Among them, Sars, Mers, and Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, are considered the most deadly. The other four cause common colds and can re-infect people six months after they have recovered from the same virus, according to the report.
Nearly two dozen cases of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 reinfections have emerged worldwide, but the actual number is believed to be much higher, as most reinfections go unrecorded, according to the report.
Another 16,171 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 705,428, according to official figures released on Saturday.
Coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 150 to 43,579, the data showed.
Britain’s coronavirus breeding number, also known as the R number, has risen slightly, the latest government figures showed on Friday.
The government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said the R number is now between 1.3 and 1.5, up from last week, which was between 1.2 and 1.5. If the number R is above one, it means that the number of cases will increase exponentially.
To return life to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia and the United States are racing against time to develop vaccines against the coronavirus. Final product
