Impact of the Omicron variant on SARS-CoV-2 reinfections in France, March 2021 to February 2022

Jonathan Bastard (1) , Benjamin Taisne (1) , Julie Figoni (1) , Alexandra Mailles (1) , Julien Durand (1) , Myriam Fayad (1) , Laurence Josset (2, 3) , Anna Maisa (1) , Sylvie van Der Werf (4, 5) , Isabelle Parent Du Châtelet (1) , Sibylle Bernard-Stoecklin (1)

1 Santé publique France - French National Public Health Agency [Saint-Maurice, France]
2 HCL - Hospices Civils de Lyon
3 CIRI - Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie - UMR
4 GMV-ARN (UMR_3569 / U-Pasteur_2) - Génétique Moléculaire des Virus à ARN - Molecular Genetics of RNA Viruses
5 CNR - Centre National de Référence des virus des infections respiratoires (dont la grippe) - National Reference Center Virus Influenzae [Paris]

Since the first reports in summer 2020, SARS-CoV-2 reinfections have raised concerns about the immunogenicity of the virus, which will affect SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology and possibly the burden of COVID-19 on our societies in the future. This study provides data on the frequency and characteristics of possible reinfections, using the French national COVID-19 testing database. The Omicron variant had a large impact on the frequency of possible reinfections in France, which represented 3.8% of all confirmed COVID-19 cases since December 2021.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Infectious Desease; Virology; SARS-COV 2

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Jonathan Bastard, Benjamin Taisne, Julie Figoni, Alexandra Mailles, Julien Durand, et al.. Impact of the Omicron variant on SARS-CoV-2 reinfections in France, March 2021 to February 2022. Eurosurveillance, 2022, 27 (13), pp.2200247. ⟨10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.13.2200247⟩. ⟨hal-03665929⟩