During America's last surge of the coronavirus driven by the Delta variant, people who were unvaccinated but survived Covid were better protected than those who were vaccinated and not previously infected, AFP quotes a new study as saying.

The authors of the paper warned, however, against depending on infection as a strategy, given the higher risks to unvaccinated persons who weren't previously infected of hospitalisation, long term impacts, and death, compared to vaccinated people.

“The level of protection offered by vaccination and surviving a previous infection changed during the study period. Vaccination remains the safest strategy for protecting against Covid-19,” it added.