Dumaguete City (CNN Philippines, February 1) — Negros Oriental recorded its first case of COVID-19 reinfection over the weekend.
Provincial IATF Ground Commander Dr. Liland Estacion on Monday said the patient is a 46-year-old frontliner working at the Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office of Guihulngan City.
Estacion added the patient was symptomatic after testing positive last January 25 and has been admitted in a government isolation facility.
He was initially infected on October 30 last year during the transport of a COVID-19 patient from Guihulngan to Dumaguete City. He recovered days after and returned to work after finishing his required isolation.
Estacion explained that when a person is infected with COVID-19, the body will develop antibodies which can only last for at least three months, and might get infected again.
Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, University of California, San Diego, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the United States have suggested that COVID-19 immunity can last for at least six months or much longer, when all components of the body’s immune memory are taken into consideration. The study included 185 adults, ages 19 to 81, in the US who recovered from COVID-19. Most of the adults were mild cases.
As of February 1, the Department of Health-Central Visayas Center for Health Development recorded 1,479 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Negros Oriental where 844 are considered as active. Some 39 persons died and 596 individuals recovered from COVID-19.
CNN Philippines’ Dumaguete correspondent Roy Bustillo contributed to this report.
