{"id":266498,"date":"2020-08-26T03:42:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T07:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=266498"},"modified":"2020-08-26T03:42:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T07:42:05","slug":"no-evidenced-based-evaluation-yet-doh-warns-public-on-hong-kong-study-on-covid-19-reinfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/26\/no-evidenced-based-evaluation-yet-doh-warns-public-on-hong-kong-study-on-covid-19-reinfection\/","title":{"rendered":"No evidenced-based evaluation yet: DOH warns public on Hong Kong study on COVID-19 reinfection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FOfficialDOHgov%2Fposts%2F3631690150175544&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=552&amp;height=609&amp;appId\" width=\"552\" height=\"609\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The recent report about researchers from Hong Kong about the &#8220;reinfection&#8221; of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cannot be evaluated yet according to the Department of Health (DOH).<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday evening, August 25, the DOH issued a statement in relation to the recent press release from the University of Hong Kong which documented a patient who was infected with two distinct SARS-CoV-2 viruses, one after the other.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;DOH and its Technical Advisory Group emphasize that no evidenced-based evaluation can be done until after details of the study are released in a peer-reviewed scientific journal,&#8221; the Department said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Moreover, data on post-infection immunity are also lacking, according to the World Health Organization,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p>DOH said that it is monitoring the issue and it prepared to evaluate it once &#8220;reliable scientific information is available.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It highlighted that it does not want people who have been infected by the virus before &#8220;to assume that they are already immune to the disease.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>DOH then reiterated its advice to the public to continue following and upholding health protocols such as using face masks, handwashing, and physical distancing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Right now, in the midst of this uncertainty and public health crisis, thoughtful and rigorous science will be our guide,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p>It was on Monday when the study&#8217;s lead author, Kelvin Kai-Wang To, microbioligist at Hong Kong University&#8217;s Faculty of Medicine, told Agence France-Presse that their study &#8220;proves that immunity for COVID infection is not lifelong. In fact, reinfection can occur quite quickly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When a 33-year-old Hong Kong resident who contracted the virus around March to April, tested positive again between July and August after a mandatory test in the Hong Kong airport; the researchers claimed it to be the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection worlwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent report about researchers from Hong Kong about the &#8220;reinfection&#8221; of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cannot be evaluated &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":257031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266498"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266503,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266498\/revisions\/266503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}