World Coronavirus Dispatch: Reinfections are real but rare, say experts

IMF sees early signs of global recovery, countries start hoarding food, Cristiano Ronaldo tests positive, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Reinfections are real but very rare: Reports of reinfection with the coronavirus evoke a nightmarish future: Repeat bouts of illness, impotent vaccines, unrelenting lockdowns — a pandemic without an end. A case study published on Monday, about a 25-year-old man in Nevada, has stoked those fears anew. The man became sicker the second time that he was infected with the virus, a pattern the immune system is supposed to prevent.

But these cases make the news precisely because they are rare, experts said: More than 38 million people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus, and as of Monday, fewer than