Researchers from the University of Hong Kong said the man was reinfected four-and-a-half months after he first caught the virus, which suggested the pandemic can infect multiple times.
The man had mild symptoms the first time and none the second time; his more recent infection was detected through screening and testing at the Hong Kong airport.
The latest cases - confirmed in Belgium and the Netherlands - will fuel concern about the effectiveness of patient's immunity.
Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst said the country's case was a woman who had contracted COVID-19 for the first time in March and then again in June, Reuters reports.
The National Institute for Public Health in the Netherlands said it had also observed a case of re-infection in an older person, Dutch media reports.
Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd told Today cases of reinfection should be expected as the pandemic develops.
He confirmed there were "different strains" of the virus.
"It's not surprising that we're seeing someone who has been infected a second time.
"We do know from other coronaviruses, particularly those that cause symptoms of the common cold, that people develop immunity which can then reduce quite rapidly over time."
More research needs to be completed on reports people are becoming reinfected, Monash University Associate Professor Julian Elliott said.
"We really need to understand how common that is actually and particularly what is the clinical course of someone who's reinfected … there's a lot more to learn."
He confirmed there were "different strains" of the virus.
Whether people who have had COVID-19 are immune to new infections and for how long are key questions that have implications for vaccine development and decisions about returning to work, school and social activities.
Even if someone can be infected a second time, it's not known if they have some protection against serious illness, because the immune system generally remembers how to make antibodies against a virus it's seen before.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMinQFodHRwczovL3d3dy45bmV3cy5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvY29yb25hdmlydXMtcmVpbmZlY3Rpb24tZXhwZWN0LW1vcmUtd2FybnMtbWljaGFlbC1raWRkLWFzLW1vcmUtY292aWQxOS1jYXNlcy1jb25maXJtZWQvYWZiYWMyNDYtNTEzOS00ZDkyLTg0NmEtNzVkYWQxMTQwMjJh0gFFaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuOW5ld3MuY29tLmF1L2FydGljbGUvYWZiYWMyNDYtNTEzOS00ZDkyLTg0NmEtNzVkYWQxMTQwMjJh?oc=5
2020-08-26 02:43:00Z
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