With upwards of 2,200 state residents diagnosed with having been hit with COVID-19 twice, New Mexico Department of Health State Epidemiologist Dr. Christine Ross admits it can be hard to get a true assessment.
“It does appear that reinfection is rare, but it is documented,” Ross told KRQE.com.
Ross said what's making the situation so difficult to gauge is the fact that it takes an individual at least three months to fully shed the virus, leaving medical officials wondering about some of the cases they encounter.
“Is this real infection, or are we in fact just picking someone up who has tested positive again, because they continue to shed the virus over a long period of time?” she added.
And for those immunocompromised, the time to shed the virus can be even longer. Ross said medical officials must compare the first positive sample to the second in hopes of getting the most accurate reading they can on possible reinfection. “It could be very difficult without adding genomic sequencing information,” she said.
In the state’s latest weekly epidemiology report, there have more than 7,000 fully vaccinated residents who have tested positive for the virus since February, compared with 53,000 cases involving unvaccinated individuals during that same timeframe.