Results from a large scale study conducted specifically on COVID-19 reinfections by the researchers at the University of Oxford has revealed that individuals once infected with SARS-CoV-2 or the novel coronavirus are unlikely to get reinfected by the virus for at least six months.
The researchers engaged in a larger-scale study after healthcare professionals engaged in the treatment of COVID-19 patients observed that reinfections were a relatively rare phenomenon.
Professor David Eyre, one of the authors of the study from Oxford University remarked the findings as “really good news” while observing that “we can be confident that, at least in the short term, most people who get COVID-19 won’t get it again.”
The ongoing study will continue to engage with COVID-19 victims to establish how long protection from reinfection lasts in total. Meanwhile, the authors highlighted that their observations are not final and conclusive as they had not yet gathered enough data to make a judgment on reinfection after six months.
Dr. Katie Jeffery, the director of infection prevention and control at study partners Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) pronounced the results from the study as “exciting” stating that the data indicated “that infection with the virus provides at least short-term protection from re-infection.”
The Study
Researchers conducted their study on data driven from regular coronavirus testing of 12,180 health care workers at OUH over a period of 30 weeks. The study found that none of the 1,246 staff with coronavirus antibodies developed a symptomatic infection.
Three members of staff with antibodies did test positive for COVID-19 but were all well and did not develop symptoms.
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