Metro Atlanta doctor warns that you may get COVID-19 twice

ATLANTA — Doctors are sounding the alarm about a second wave of the coronavirus reinfecting people.

Channel 2′s Dave Huddleston talked to a doctor who said there will be more cases of people getting the virus twice.

Doctor Jeffrey Metts is the Chief of Medicine and Public Health  Specialist at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America Atlanta office. Metts said that with so many cases of COVID-19, people becoming re-infected is bound to happen again and again.

“It’s no surprise at all,” Metts said. “There have been over 24 million, and we’re on our way to 25 million. So statistically, it’s inevitable.”

Metts said the big unknown is what sort of damage a second wave of coronavirus infections will have on the human body.

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“Some are concerned that the second infection could be much more serious, so we have to be cognizant that that possibility exists,” Metts said.

A 33-year-old man from Hong Kong was first infected in March and then four months later, got COVID-19 again while on vacation in Europe.

Metts said that is the first documented case of a re-infection, but others are starting to come forward that haven’t been absolutely confirmed.

Metts suspects thousands more will be reinfected, and with that data, doctors will be able to do research and determine if we’ll only get mild symptoms, or if the virus will be just as deadly the second time around.

“Over time, that’ really going to tell the rest, as we build that data and get more data analyzed,” Metts said.

Metts said that even if those who are reinfected and only suffer mild symptoms, they could still be dangerous to those who haven’t been infected or the vulnerable. He suspects you’ll still have to quarantine and take precautions.

White House coronavirus task force says Georgia seeing ‘fragile’ improvements in fight against virus Cases are going down across the state, but members of the task force say they still have concerns for the Peach State and is still in need of aggressive action.

Cox Media Group