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 UK and were followed up for 31 weeks.
In the study, researchers investigated the incidences of COVID-19 infection by performing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on health care workers who had tested positive and negative, including 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 in whom seroconversion occurred during follow-up. A total of 223 negative anti-peak health workers had a positive PCR test (1.09 per 10,000 days of risk), up to 100 during screening were found to be asymptomatic, and 123 had symptoms, according to the study.
The researchers said people who had anti-spike antibodies did not have symptomatic infections.