Can People Spread COVID-19 Coronavirus After Recovering from the Disease?

A couple of days ago one of our readers had enquired about this important question: Can you get COVID-19 from someone who has already had it? So here goes. Hopefully, you will find this article helpful.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out a great number of resources on this topic. The short answer is that someone who has recovered from COVID-19 cannot spread or transmit the virus (after a window of time when they are not symptomatic; see below) to others unless they become reinfected with the virus subsequently. Yes, reinfection is possible—please keep reading, as there is more to it.

Let’s reserve the topic of reinfection for last. First, let’s discuss the CDC’s guidance related to this matter.

When Is It Safe to Be Around Someone Who Has COVID-19?

Coronavirus may linger in the body for weeks after recovery from the disease. According to the CDC, a person who has gotten COVID-19 can be around others after:

10 days since symptoms first appeared and
24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and
Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving
- Symptoms such as loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery, but those symptoms need not delay the end of isolation

Exceptions to these rules:

CDC however DOES NOT recommend these stipulations for people with severe COVID-19 or with severely weakened immune systems—meaning those who are immunocompromised.

CDC recommends that people who are severely ill with COVID-19 might need to stay home longer than 10 days and up to 20 days after symptoms first appeared. Those who are severely immunocompromised may require testing to determine when they can be around others. If you fall into this category, always talk to your doctor for more information. It is best to get guidance from your doctor about when to resume being around other people based on the results of your testing. CDC also states that your doctor may work with an infectious disease expert or your local health department to determine whether testing will be necessary before you can be around other people.

If some people infected with coronavirus show no symptoms and continue to show no symptoms, the CDC, in that case, recommends that those individuals can be with others after 10 days have passed since they had a positive viral test for COVID-19.

Per CDC’s guidance, most people do not need testing to decide when they can be around others unless the healthcare providers recommend testing; in which case, the healthcare providers will guide as to when one can resume being around others based on test results.

How long might COVID-19 Coronavirus Immunity last after recovery? Or, Can You Get the Coronavirus More Than Once?

A key unknown in the current COVID-19 pandemic is the duration of acquired protection or coronavirus immunity after recovering from the disease. CDC expects those with previous coronavirus infections are unlikely to spread the virus for three months due to immune protection, provided that they are asymptomatic. But, can you get COVID-19 Coronavirus twice?

CDC clarified that it does not automatically mean that someone is immune to COVID-19 coronavirus for three months post-infection since there is the possibility of becoming infected for a second time with the virus—that is reinfection.

Reinfection or catching COVID-19 a second time is possible

In a recent study, experts tried to look for insights from infections with four similar human coronaviruses that are seasonal so that they may reveal commonalities applicable to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2). Healthy individuals who were monitored for 35 years were found to be reinfected with the same seasonal coronavirus frequently at 12 months after infection with the same virus.

Reinfection can occur only when our body’s protective immunity (immunity meaning protection is acquired from a previous infection with the same virus) is insufficient. The fact that natural infection occurs for all four seasonal coronaviruses, suggests that it is maybe a common feature for all human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. And reinfection frequency after 12 months indicate that protective immunity may be short-lived.

This is no surprise that to date we know of at least 33 cases of COVID-19 reinfections as reported in a daily COVID-19 reinfection tracker (check it out—it’s a really cool resource), and this is likely an underestimation since a confirmed case of reinfection requires genetic proof that the virus is sufficiently different the second time. Genomic testing to determine this requires viral samples as well as time, money, and other resources that are not often readily accessible. Consequently, the number of confirmed reinfections is believed to be much higher than the 2,000+ suspected cases reported to date.

Many experts believe that a second infection may be milder than the first infection, and therefore could even be not symptomatic or asymptomatic. In this case, the reinfections are not reported since they are not tested due to not having any suspicion. However, these asymptomatic individuals are perfectly capable of spreading or transmitting the virus to others. Unfortunately, because of the possibility of reinfection, people who have recovered from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus aren’t necessarily safe companions. It is prudent to mask up and continue observing the public health measures and social distancing until we achieve sufficient herd immunity or community protection via vaccination.

VaxTherapy is NOT affiliated with any of the pharma/biotech companies working on COVID-19 vaccines. The purpose of this post is to provide education and awareness from a virologist’s independent perspective based on available facts and data.

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