Medical professionals say it’s true that having COVID gives you some immunity, but doesn’t make you impervious to being re-infected later. In fact, the state’s health department is tracking cases of re-infection.
Despite notions otherwise, you can get COVID multiple times. Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said the state has been tracking reinfections on its dashboard since this fall.
“The Ohio Dept of Health will be counting any individuals re-infected with COVID19 from September 1 on as a new case and that will be reflected on our dashboards,” Vanderhoff said.
Vanderhoff said for a case to be counted as new, it would have to occur after 90 days from the previous case. While re-infections are counted as new cases, they are not separated out so there’s no way to know, from looking at the dashboard, the number of them.
Ohio has seen record-high numbers of positive COVID cases during the holiday season. This week the Ohio Department of Health recorded 20,320 confirmed and probable cases, breaking the record for the most number of positives recorded in one 24 hour period since the pandemic began. Some hospitals are so overwhelmed with patients that the Ohio National Guard has been called in to assist with patient care and other needs.
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