Residents undergo a free rapid antigen nasopharyngeal swab test for Kovid-19 at a test facility set up in a school sports hall in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Northern Italy, on November 20, 2020.
Pierre TEYSSOT | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – According to the findings of a new study, people who have contracted coronavirus are “highly unlikely” to have contracted the disease for at least six months.
The researchers say the findings are “exciting” because they represent an important step in understanding how Kovid-19 immunity may work.
The study, published on Friday, was part of a major collaboration between Oxford University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
It claims to be the first large-scale research project to see how much protection people receive from revision after contracting coronavirus. The study has not yet been peer reviewed.
This comes after Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as well as positive string two results from AstraZeneca-Oxford read a string of late-stage trials encouraging a string of vaccine results over the past few weeks.
There is growing optimism that a coronovirus vaccine may help end the coronovirus epidemic that has claimed more than 1.3 million lives worldwide.
Public health officials and experts warn that it may take months, perhaps more than a year, to deliver sufficient doses of any potential coronavirus vaccine to regain so-called herd immunity and suppress the virus.
‘Really good news’
The study employed 12,180 health care workers in Oxford University hospitals with a period of 30,908 between April and November.
Health care workers were tested for antibodies to the virus that causes Kovid-19 as a way of detecting what was previously infected. Health care workers were tested for the disease both when they became unwell with symptoms and as part of routine testing.
The findings showed that 89 out of 11,052 employees without antibodies developed a new infection with symptoms. However, none of the 1,246 employees with antibodies developed symptomatic infection. Staff with antibodies were also found to be less likely to test positive for the virus without symptoms.
“This is really good news, because we can believe that, at least in the short term, most people who get COVID-19 won’t get it again,” Professor David Eyre of the University of Oxford’s Newfield Department of Population Health he said .
Furthermore, the researchers stated that the opposite also proved to be true. Health care workers who did not have antibodies against Kovid-19 were more likely to develop the infection.
On October 21, 2020, a paramilitary vehicle to a woman outside an ambulance outside Burgos Hospital in Burgos, northern Spain, on the first day of a two-week lockdown in an attempt to limit the impulse of the new Coronoval COVID-19.
Caesar Mansu | AFP | Getty Images
The researchers said that there was not yet enough data to decide on protection from early infection beyond the six-month period. The study will continue to collect data, with the hope of confirming how rescheduling may protect it for longer.
“This is an exciting discovery, showing that infection with the virus provides at least short-term protection from re-infection – the news comes in the same month as other encouraging news about COVID vaccines,” Director of Infection Dr. Katie Jeffrey said. Prevention and Control for Oxford University Hospitals.
A previous study by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust staff published on 5 November, antibodies to Kovid-19 fell by half in less than 90 days.
That study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, stated that antibody levels are low and fall rapidly in young adults.
“We know from previous studies that antibody levels drop over time,” Eyre said, referencing research published earlier this month.
“But this latest study shows that people who have been infected have some immunity. We will continue to observe this cohabitation of employees carefully, to see how long protection lasts and whether from previous infections The severity of the infection is affected if people become infected again. “