A 1 to 1000 SARS-CoV-2 reinfection proportion in members of a large healthcare provider in Israel: a preliminary report

  1. Galit Perez
  2. Tamar Banon
  3. Sivan Gazit
  4. Shay Ben Moshe
  5. Joshua Wortsman
  6. Daniel Grupel
  7. Asaf Peretz
  8. Amir Ben Tov
  9. Gabriel Chodick
  10. Miri Mizrahi-Reuveni
  11. Tal Patalon

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Abstract

With more than 100 million confirmed COVID-19 cases as of March 2021, reinfection is still considered to be rare. In light of increasing reports of reinfected COVID-19 patients, the need to better understand the real risk for reinfection is critical, with potential effects on public health policies aimed at containing the spread of SARS-CoV-2. In this descriptive preliminary report, we conducted a large-scale assessment on the country level of the possible occurrence of COVID-19 reinfection within the members of a large healthcare provider in Israel. Out of 149,735 individuals with a documented positive PCR test between March 2020 and January 2021, 154 had two positive PCR tests at least 100 days apart, reflecting a reinfection proportion of 1 per 1000. Given our strict inclusion criteria, we believe these numbers represent true reinfection incidence in MHS and should be clinically regarded as such.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.06.21253051: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The study was approved by the MHS institutional review board.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Limitations: Although this research displays new information on reinfected COVID-19 individuals in Israel, the study has some limitations. First, the conservative definition of reinfections (i.e. minimum 100 days between positive PCR tests) may have excluded some reinfected members from this study. Furthermore, members in the cohort were not evaluated further than preliminary assessments, mainly counts and proportions. Further research should be performed as more data is collected, followed by statistic modeling and predictive analyses between reinfection groups. Conclusions: This study describes real-world data of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in a large-scale population cohort. Reinfection proportion, albeit small, is not insignificant; as time passes the potential for reinfection increases. Given our strict inclusion criteria, we believe these numbers represent true reinfections in MHS and should be clinically regarded as such. Health policymakers should acknowledge the possibility of reinfection and reconsider the differential message to recovered population.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.03.06.21253051 on medRxiv