COLUMBUS, Ind. — Bartholomew County health officials are urging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 even if they already had the viral infection, saying the vaccines offer the best chance for long-term protection and are key for reaching herd immunity before a mutation renders the vaccines ineffective.
Currently, health experts do not know how long a past COVID-19 infection will protect people from getting sick again and warn that — although rare so far — it is possible to be infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 again.
Earlier this week, Columbus Regional Health confirmed at least one case of COVID-19 reinfection within the hospital system, meaning that the individual contracted COVID-19, recovered and months later fell ill and tested positive again.
“We just don’t know how long immunity from the infection lasts,” said Dr. Slade Crowder, CRH vice president of physician enterprise operations. “Candidly, we don’t know how long the protection from the vaccine lasts either. But we know that being vaccinated is the best chance to have the best protection. So we encourage people who had (COVID-19) to still get vaccinated so that we are more confident that they’ll have long-term protection.”
For more on this story, see Sunday’s Republic.
