In the first incident of its kind, an Israeli who recovered from the coronavirus in August was reinfected with a coronavirus variant, testing positive on Sunday for the South African variant.

Ziv Yaffe, 57, recently returned from Turkey. He is the second Israeli to be diagnosed with the South African variant after returning from Turkey, with the 30 other Israelis diagnosed with the variant returning from South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia.

Yaffe told Channel 12 News that when he was first infected with the coronavirus in August he suffered from all the symptoms and felt very ill but he is now feeling “great.” Furthermore, although he was in close contact with family members, including his wife, daughter and granddaughters, and others before realizing he was positive for the virus again, none of them contracted the virus from him.

Prof. Shai Efrati, who is heading a study by Assaf HaRofeh Hospital on the effect of the coronavirus on the immune system, said that Yaffe’s case is encouraging since it seems as if the antibodies that Yaffe developed after contracting the original coronavirus protected. him from becoming ill from the South African mutation. However, more time and research is needed before it can be concluded that antibodies against the original coronavirus will provide protection against mutations, he said.

The Health Ministry last week identified three cases of the South African variant after carrying out sequencing on a random batch of test samples, raising fears that the variant is spreading throughout Israel.

Health officials fear that the South African variant, which along with the British and Los Angeles variants, is more contagious than the original virus, will infect people who have already recovered from the virus and have not been vaccinated.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)