(AP) – If I’ve already had the coronavirus, can I get it again?
It is possible, but such cases seem to be rare. There is growing evidence that people whose bodies have built strong defenses against the virus will not test positive again for the first few months and perhaps even longer.
It’s not uncommon to develop some immunity to a virus after an infection, as our bodies are generally better at recognizing and fighting bugs they’ve encountered before. And that seems to be the case with the coronavirus, too, although scientists are still trying to figure out how long the protection could last.
Some reinfections have been confirmed, but two new studies suggest this is very unusual.
In one, only two of the 1,265 health workers in the UK who had previously been infected tested positive for the coronavirus again in the following six months. In another study of people in the US, only 0.3% of infected people tested positive for the virus in the next few months – about as much positivity as the UK study.
The findings bode well for the COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out, which elicit the kind of immune responses the studies found to be protective.
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The AP answers your questions about the corona virus in this series. Submit them to: [email protected].
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