Since the pandemic’s start, the MDHHS lab has sequenced 26,300 COVID samples. Tracking and identifying them has become a crucial tool to protect the public.

Beaumont Health official Dr. Nicholas Gilpin held a news briefing on Thursday to mark the second anniversary of COVID in Michigan, how it has affected health care workers and the industry, and what to expect as we move forward.

It’s a question many people have been asking since March 2020: When will the COVID pandemic end? Many also want to know how it will end and how will we actually know it’s over?

ANN ARBOR – New research from the University of Michigan shows that reinfections of seasonal coronaviruses are common, suggesting that the virus behind COVID-19 could be endemic. “The frequency of reinfections with the different seasonal coronaviruses suggests that SARS-COV-2 is not going to completely disappear.”AdThe researchers used data on 3,418 individuals from the Household Influenza Vaccine Evaluation from the years 2010-2018. Upon evaluating the data, the team found 1,004 seasonal coronavirus infections. Additionally, 27 percent of the reinfections occurred within one year of the initial infection, which researchers say is a relatively short period of time given the virus’ seasonal nature. “In our study, participants had high levels of anti-spike protein binding antibody to seasonal coronaviruses, but these antibodies did not correlate with protection from infection,” Petrie said in a release.