WHO: virus reinfection seems not to be regular event

re is likely only a slim possibility of people being reinfected with COVID-19, UN health ncy said on Tuesday, following reports in Hong Kong that a man h contracted new coronavirus for a second time after an interval of more than four months.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris downplayed concerns that development could herald a new alert.

" important – or important - thing to te is numbers are very, very small," she said. "So this is one documented case in over 23 million and we will probably see or documented cases. But it seems to be t a regular event, we would have seen many more cases."

neless, Dr Harris ted that reinfection signalled on Monday was significant.

According to University of Hong Kong scientists who anunced development,   virus strains that infected man more than four months apart were different.

" important thing here is that this is clear documentation," WHO spokesperson said. "So, we've h anecdotal reports every w and n from people who've tested negative, n tested positive. And it hasn't been clear up until this case wher that was simply a problem of testing or wher people were getting infected a second time."

Priorities for UN health ncy include understanding "what this means in terms of (people's) immunity", Dr Harris continued.

"This is why we have got a lot of research groups actually tracking people, measuring antibodies, trying to understand how long immune protection lasts – natural immune protection - and that should be understood as it is t same as immune protection that a vaccine provides."

To date, WHO has recorded nearly 23.5 million cases of COVID-19 infection globally, with more than 809,000 deaths. Americas have been worst-hit by region, with more than 12.5 million people infected, followed by Europe (3.995 million), South-East Asia (3.666 million), Eastern Mediterranean (1.840 million), Africa (1.007 million) and  Western Pacific (460,991).

In a related development, WHO said that more than 170 countries are cooperating on a global initiative to produce fairly priced COVID-19 vaccines once y are licensed and approved.

COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) initiative involves countries and vaccine manufacturers; it is led by WHO, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Invations (CEPI) and Gavi, Vaccine Alliance.

In a statement, WHO said that COVAX has world's "largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio" with nine candidate vaccines, nine more "under evaluation and conversations underway with or major producers".

WHO described project as only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.

But it insisted that in order to secure eugh doses of vaccines to protect most vulnerable populations - such as health workers and elderly – funding was needed by a 31 August deline.