Warn Patients: Post-Coronavirus Immunity May Last 5 Months—but Transmissibility Continues

Patients who recover from COVID-19 infection may be comforted by new data suggesting their antibodies could provide at least 5 months of protection from new infection. The Sarscov2 Immunity & Reinfection EvaluationN (SIREN) study indicates that recovered individuals have at least 83% protection from reinfection over that time period, if not longer. However, as noted in an article posted by Medscape, some of those patients may still be capable of transmitting the virus to people around them. This may be especially important for urgent care workers to understand, as the SIREN data were drawn from study of 20,787 healthcare workers from 102 trusts in the UK’s National Health Service who underwent antibody and PCR testing between June 18 and November 9, 2020. Of those, 6,614 tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies. There were 44 “potential” reinfections in that group, two of which were “probable” with the remaining 42 being labeled as only “possible.”