A recent study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that antibodies could protect people who have already had COVID-19 from being reinfected for at least six months.
The researchers examined 12,541 health workers at Oxford University Hospitals in the United Kingdom and were followed for up to 31 weeks.
In the study, researchers investigated the incidence of COVID-19 infection by performing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on health care workers who tested positive and negative, including both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.
The results of the study showed that 11,364 had no antibody levels and 1,265 had positive results, which also included 88 health workers who experienced seroconversion during follow-up. The study found that a total of 223 anti-peak-negative health workers had a positive PCR test (1.09 per 10,000 days at risk), up to 100 during screening were found to be asymptomatic. and 123 had symptoms.
The researchers said that people who had anti-peak antibodies did not have symptomatic infections.