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People infected with the coronavirus are unlikely to catch it again for at least another six months, according to a University of Oxford study released on Friday.
“We can be sure that, at least in the short term, most people who contract COVID-19 will no longer have it,” said Professor David Eyre, one of the authors of the research.
The news is a further boost for those hoping that a vaccine will be rolled out within weeks, as the anti-coronavirus antibodies provided by the inoculation would appear strong enough to have a lasting effect.
Eyre said the results were “very good news” as Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) study partner infection prevention and control director Katie Jeffery called the development “exciting”.
The study drew on data from regular testing of 12,180 healthcare workers over a 30-week period. He found that none of the 1,246 staff with antibodies developed symptomatic infections.
Read more: Coronavirus: Can we trust the recent successes of the COVID vaccine?
WHO expresses hope
The American company Moderna announced this week that its vaccine candidate was nearly 95% effective in a trial, a week after the announcement of similar results by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
The news of the evidence for immunity has been welcomed around the world, including by the World Health Organization.
“We are seeing sustained levels of immune response in humans so far,” said Mike Ryan, WHO’s leading emergency specialist. “It also gives us hope on the vaccine side.”
But Maria van Kerkhove, WHO technical officer on COVID-19, warned: “We still have to follow these people for a longer period to see how long the immunity lasts.”
you / aw (AFP, Reuters)
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