Can You Get Reinfected With Coronavirus? Health Experts Don't Have Data Yet To Support Theory
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Coronavirus infections are rapidly increasing across the country, breaking records and putting a stop to business plans.
California is rolling back its reopening efforts. Venues, including restaurants, movie theaters and zoos, must shut down indoor operations. Bars must close completely.
In Florida, there were more than 12,000 new cases reported Monday and a record 15,000 on Sunday.
In New Jersey, where cases are on the decline, NJ TRANSIT and private carrier service can return to full capacity starting at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
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And as CBS2's Jessica Layton reported, some people appear to be getting reinfected by the virus, though health experts aren't quite sure if that's really what's happening.
"Was I as vigilant as I could? No. I did not think I could end up in the hospital," Chanan Sabo said.
Sabo is sounding the alarm on how serious coronavirus can be, after the 31-year-old got sick.
"My husband had a fever, some body aches, back pain, a little bit of a cough," wife Tehila Sabo said.
The healthy husband and wife were presumed positive back in March after attending a family wedding in New York, where several relatives also became ill.
"Symptoms went away. He totally felt fine," Tehila Sabo said.
Then last week the Florida man got a headache and went to the hospital with a brain bleed. He also tested positive for what doctors believe was an unrelated case of coronavirus, nearly four months after his initial symptoms.
"Obviously, there's a lot of research being done -- can you get reinfected, not reinfected, and they don't know," Tehila Sabo said.
A man in Tennessee believes he has coronavirus again. He tested positive in March after a trip to New York City, then felt better, but then recently came down with a sore throat and fever, and just tested positive.
"Everybody that I have read about or I have heard about that gets it a second time or third time tends to be worse and worse and worse each time," emergency care physician Dr. Ron Elfenbein said.
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Are patients really getting it twice? Or does the illness just have the ability to stay in the body for months?
"To my knowledge, there is no published data on this yet," Elfenbein said. "Some people would argue we're not really seeing a secondary infection. We're just seeing a reactivation of the initial virus."
It comes as the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. has soared to 3.3 million. Grappling with about 8,000 new cases a day, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is closing all indoor operations for restaurants and movie theaters. Bars must also shut down, again.
"But that data suggests not everybody is practicing common sense," Newsom said Monday.
Officials in Florida are resisting calls for more closures, even though the state hit new records for cases this weekend.
"They have not taken this virus seriously enough," said Dr. Aileen Marti, an epidemiologist at Florida International University.
And in Texas, a doctor shared the last words of a 30-year-old who attended a so-called "COVID" party.
"They looked at their nurse and said, 'I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it's not,'" said Dr. Jane Appleby, Chief Medical Officer at Methodist Hospital.
The spikes are so concerning, New York state is now mandating travelers from so-called "quarantine states" sign a form saying where they came from and where they're going before leaving the airport, or face a $2,000 fine.
"None of this is pleasant, but we've gone through this before," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
And we don't want to go through it again.
