DESPITE rising numbers of people on social media claiming to have been infected with COVID-19 for a third time recently, experts have said that those reinfected most likely only had mild symptoms.

While the phrase “third-time COVID” has trended on microblogging platform Sina Weibo, experts said that only a relatively small number of people in the general population have been infected three times and the public doesn’t need to worry about a third wave of COVID-19.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday classified the EG.5 coronavirus strain as a “variant of interest” but said it did not pose more of a threat than other variants.

Data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 3 showed that the number of severe cases and cases in fever clinics both declined in July.

Peng Jie, director of the treatment center for infectious diseases at Nanfang Hospital in Guangzhou, said only a very small number of the patients treated at the hospital were third-time COVID patients, and they only had mild symptoms.

(China Daily)