Does COVID-19 infection protect you from getting it again?
Yes (initially).
Protective COVID-19 antibodies stay in the blood following infection with COVD-19 infection. In most people they remain in the blood, and prevent another infection, for at least a year following infection.
The risk of reinfection is <1 % in the first six months following initial infection.
The risk of reinfection may be greater with the Omicron variant. In fact Professor Danny Altmann, from Imperial College has said “We have found that Omicron is far from a benign natural booster of vaccine immunity, as we might have thought, but it is an especially stealthy immune evader.
Not only can it break through vaccine defences, it looks to leave very few of the hallmarks we’d expect on the immune system – it’s more stealthy than previous variants and flies under the radar, so the immune system is unable to remember it.”
