A new study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that unvaccinated people are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with COVID-19 as the fully vaccinated.

The CDC said the finding supports its recommendation “that all eligible persons be offered COVID-19 vaccination, regardless of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection status.”

The new study was based on 246 adults in Kentucky who were reinfected in May and June in 2021 after previously being infected last year.

They were compared to 492 controls who were infected with the virus in 2020 but were not reinfected.

The analysis found that those who have not been vaccinated were 2.34 times as likely to be reinfected with the virus compared to people fully vaccinated with the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

The CDC added that the duration of infection-acquired immunity remains poorly understood and may be affected by the emergency of newer variants.

For example, laboratory studies have shown that blood samples from people previously infected with the original COVID-19 strain had poor antibody responses to the Beta variant first identified in South Africa.

However, one of the limitations of the study is that it was conducted before Delta became the dominant strain in the US.