18% people in India reinfected with Covid-19 in last 6 months: Survey

India is witnessing a surge in Covid-19 infections, with around 12,000 cases being reported nationally every day, and many of these are reinfections. A new survey by LocalCircles, which received 35,000 responses from citizens across 301 districts of the country, showed that around 18 per cent of the respondents had at least one family member who got reinfected with the novel coronavirus (Sars-CoV-2) in the last six months.

Around 46 per cent of those surveyed said their second infection was more severe than the first one. LocalCircles noted that their findings indicated that Covid-19 reinfections were more common with Omicron than they were with Alpha, Beta and Delta variants.

The survey defined a mild infection as cough and cold for a few days or a low-grade fever, while a severe infection was defined as a persistent cough, persistent congestion, chest pain, or high and persistent fever.
 

Another finding of this citizen survey was that about 45 per cent of respondents said they were reinfected weeks after their original infection, while for 27 per cent of people, it was six months apart. Thus, people are now getting reinfected more often within a few weeks, LocalCircles said.
 

Some global studies have indicated that every Covid-19 reinfection worsens the risk of an individual for long Covid and other health complications. A recent study by experts at Washington University School of Medicine and VA Saint Louis Health Care System posted in a pre-print server has shown that acute Sars-CoV-2 reinfection adds to the risks of all-cause mortality and hospitalisation accrued during the first SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The third wave in December-January in India was led by Omicron BA.1 followed by the BA.2 variant. The latest sub-variants in circulation are BA.2.12.1 and BA.5. Genome sequencing data seems to suggest that BA.2 is still the dominant strain with a 70 per cent share, but BA.5 is on the rise.

The community social media platform estimated that the actual number of infections was five times of the reported cases.

It said that when asked about the severity of infections, 21 per cent of the respondents said their first infection was severe while the second one was mild, another 21 per cent said that the first one was mild and the second was mild too, while 46 per cent people said that their first one was a mild infection and the second one was more severe in terms of symptoms. Around 12 per cent people, however, said that they got it thrice and it became milder with subsequent infections. LocalCircles says that this particular question had 11,606 responses.

As such, 35,000 responses were received for the overall survey, of which 67 per cent of respondents were men while 33 per cent were women. Around 42 per cent respondents were from tier-1 cities and metros, while 35 per cent were from tier-2 towns and districts, and 23 per cent were from tier-3 and 4 towns and rural districts.