WA Chief Health Officer: COVID reinfection can occur from four weeks after recovering from the virus

Western Australia is updating its COVID-19 guidelines to show reinfection can occur from just four weeks after recovering from the virus.

COVID-19 reinfection cases were previously defined as a case that occurs more than 12 weeks after an initial infection.

The updated advice, from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee(AHPPC), follows the detection of an increasing number of BA.4 and BA.5 COVID-19 Omicron variants in the WA community.

WA Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said an increase in these subvariants – which now represent over 50 per cent of new cases in WA — meant reinfections were being reported between four and 12 weeks after the initial Omicron infection.

“BA.4 and BA.5 are making up an increasing percentage of our cases, rising to more than 60 per cent of cases in the last week,” Dr Robertson said.

“This means that people who have had COVID-19 should again get tested and isolate if they have symptoms more than 28 days after recovering from COVID-19.”

The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants are considered more contagious than earlier variants due to their increased ability to infect people who have been infected previously .

Western Australian's are encouraged to stay up-to-date with their COVID-19 vaccinations including a fourth dose if eligible, and to stay home and get tested in they develop symptoms.