Shortly before the New Year’s Day countdown, Ariane Lesage received a message about a PCR test carried out during the day. Result: it was positive. A few days earlier, she had spent Christmas Eve with her family, with her brother, who later developed symptoms. “We didn’t think we had it, because we had just caught COVID-19,” says the pharmacy technical assistant.
Last October, Ariane Lesage, her husband and their 6-year-old son contracted COVID-19. The couple was however doubly vaccinated, even if the two doses received by the young woman date back to January and May 2021. Aged 32, she says she is surprised to have strongly felt the symptoms linked to the virus in the fall. “I wasn’t even functional anymore,” she recalls, adding that she thought about going to the hospital. The infection during the holidays, however, was less severe, with symptoms similar to those of a cold, she says. “I was still able to do my chores and stand up,” she says.
Last week, Cynthia Simard also contracted the virus for the second time. An essential worker, she had nevertheless received a dose of vaccine in December 2020.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY CYNTHIA SIMARD
Cynthia Simard
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In May 2020, she had experienced muscle pain and intense fatigue, which continued. “I was just starting to get out of it,” she laments. This time, “I feel like I have the real COVID, continues Cynthia Simard. I have body aches, a headache, loss of taste and smell, and a sore throat.”
A “fairly classic case” with Omicron
A double infection is “a fairly classic case with the Omicron variant”, says Alain Lamarre, professor-researcher specializing in immunology and virology at the National Institute for Scientific Research. Since the holidays, the variant has gained ground in Quebec. As of January 8, it is suspected that nearly 95% of cases are attributable to it, while the remaining 5% are linked to the Delta variant, according to the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ).
More information on the number of people doubly infected in Quebec should be provided shortly, according to the INSPQ. “With the announced change in the screening strategy, where the number of cases confirmed by PCR is decreasing, it will become more difficult to identify cases of reinfections in the surveillance data from now on”, however qualified Sybille. Jussome, the Institute’s communications advisor, in an email exchange with The Press.
When a person contracts COVID-19 for the second time, it is hoped that the infection will be less serious, suggests André Veillette, professor of medicine and director of the Molecular Oncology Research Unit at the Institute for Clinical Research in Montreal. If one is exposed to a larger dose of the virus the second time, it “could be worse” than the first infection, he acknowledges.
Do not count on the vaccine or a previous infection to tell yourself that you will never have [le virus] and we won’t be sick. Chances are we’ll be less sick, but that’s not guaranteed.
–
André Veillette, immunologiste
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The question of the third dose
Those who have been infected in the past and who have received two doses of vaccine should go get a third dose to make sure they have “a good immune response and that it is fairly recent”, suggests Alain Lamarre.
The Dr Donald Vinh, infectious disease specialist-microbiologist at the McGill University Health Center, agrees. “We don’t know how long Omicron will last and there is always a risk of getting sick,” he says. But if the infection occurred after December 26, there is a good chance that it was then the Omicron variant that struck, believes the doctor. In this case, receiving a booster dose is “not urgent” and it can be done two to three months after contracting COVID-19, he estimates.
On Wednesday, Quebec announced that people who have recently contracted COVID-19 can get a third dose as soon as their symptoms end. An interval of three months between the second and third injection is however maintained.
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Florence Morin Martel
The Press
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Shortly before the New Year’s Day countdown, Ariane Lesage received a message about a PCR test carried out during the day. Result: it was positive. A few days earlier, she had spent Christmas Eve with her family, with her brother, who later developed symptoms. “We didn’t think we had it, because we had just caught COVID-19,” says the pharmacy technical assistant.
Last October, Ariane Lesage, her husband and their 6-year-old son contracted COVID-19. The couple was however doubly vaccinated, even if the two doses received by the young woman date back to January and May 2021. Aged 32, she says she is surprised to have strongly felt the symptoms linked to the virus in the fall. “I wasn’t even functional anymore,” she recalls, adding that she thought about going to the hospital. The infection during the holidays, however, was less severe, with symptoms similar to those of a cold, she says. “I was still able to do my chores and stand up,” she says.
Last week, Cynthia Simard also contracted the virus for the second time. An essential worker, she had nevertheless received a dose of vaccine in December 2020.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY CYNTHIA SIMARD
Cynthia Simard
–
In May 2020, she had experienced muscle pain and intense fatigue, which continued. “I was just starting to get out of it,” she laments. This time, “I feel like I have the real COVID, continues Cynthia Simard. I have body aches, a headache, loss of taste and smell, and a sore throat.”
A “fairly classic case” with Omicron
A double infection is “a fairly classic case with the Omicron variant”, says Alain Lamarre, professor-researcher specializing in immunology and virology at the National Institute for Scientific Research. Since the holidays, the variant has gained ground in Quebec. As of January 8, it is suspected that nearly 95% of cases are attributable to it, while the remaining 5% are linked to the Delta variant, according to the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ).
More information on the number of people doubly infected in Quebec should be provided shortly, according to the INSPQ. “With the announced change in the screening strategy, where the number of cases confirmed by PCR is decreasing, it will become more difficult to identify cases of reinfections in the surveillance data from now on”, however qualified Sybille. Jussome, the Institute’s communications advisor, in an email exchange with The Press.
When a person contracts COVID-19 for the second time, it is hoped that the infection will be less serious, suggests André Veillette, professor of medicine and director of the Molecular Oncology Research Unit at the Institute for Clinical Research in Montreal. If one is exposed to a larger dose of the virus the second time, it “could be worse” than the first infection, he acknowledges.
Do not count on the vaccine or a previous infection to tell yourself that you will never have [le virus] and we won’t be sick. Chances are we’ll be less sick, but that’s not guaranteed.
–
André Veillette, immunologiste
–
The question of the third dose
Those who have been infected in the past and who have received two doses of vaccine should go get a third dose to make sure they have “a good immune response and that it is fairly recent”, suggests Alain Lamarre.
The Dr Donald Vinh, infectious disease specialist-microbiologist at the McGill University Health Center, agrees. “We don’t know how long Omicron will last and there is always a risk of getting sick,” he says. But if the infection occurred after December 26, there is a good chance that it was then the Omicron variant that struck, believes the doctor. In this case, receiving a booster dose is “not urgent” and it can be done two to three months after contracting COVID-19, he estimates.
On Wednesday, Quebec announced that people who have recently contracted COVID-19 can get a third dose as soon as their symptoms end. An interval of three months between the second and third injection is however maintained.
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