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VERIFY: Can mosquitoes spread COVID-19? Can I get the virus twice?

Our VERIFY team learned there's no data to suggest mosquitoes and ticks can transmit the coronavirus. It's unclear if you can get the virus twice.

TOLEDO, Ohio — The sweet smell of spring is in the air, even though many of our hours nowadays are spent indoors.

But the nicer weather prompted a question from one of our viewers: can mosquitoes carry and spread COVID-19?

We got information on this from ProMedica Dr. Brian Kaminski.

"There hasn't been anything reported from our national agencies yet about transmission from mosquitoes," Kaminski said. "We probably just don't know yet because it's so early."

That echoes the CDC's stance on the question. The agency says it has no data to suggest that this coronavirus or any others spread via ticks or mosquitoes.

Credit: WTOL

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However, we may not know for sure until more research is done.

Another common question we've been getting: can someone recover from COVID-19 and then get it again down the road?

Put simply, we don't know.

The CDC says the idea of getting re-infected is not yet understood.

Dr. Kaminski agreed, explaining it in terms of a person catching the flu two years in a row.

"You're catching a different strain of that virus because influenza has a fairly high mutation rate, so it changes in enough of a way that your immune system recognizes it as a separate virus," he said. "We don't know yet for coronavirus. We do know that it has a lower mutation rate than influenza does. 

"The answer is that we don't know for sure yet. So just because you've had coronavirus, you can't assume that you're protected from coronavirus for the rest of your life."

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