Can You Catch Coronavirus All Over Again?
Can you become immune to coronavirus?
You would think people who already had the virus would no longer be at risk of catching it all over again since they developed antibodies and have become immune to it.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 is a tricky virus. In recent weeks, there have been various reports around the world about recovered Covid-19 patients becoming reinfected, sparking fears about a second round of illness.
According to early reports, some people in China, Japan and South Korea tested positive twice. A woman in Los Angeles healed from COVID-19 only to be tested positive again a few weeks later. A doctor from New Jersey claimed several patients tested negative for months but then became reinfected (one of the patients reportedly attended a party).
So, are antibodies any good? Well, according to Elitza Theel, director of the infectious diseases serology laboratory at the Mayo Clinic, “antibodies will peak at about 20 to 30 days after symptom onset, and then they decline,” and “they seem to decline much more rapidly in individuals that were asymptomatic or had mild forms of the disease.”
