'Overwhelming majority' of people who have recovered from coronavirus develop antibodies, tests show

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam during a media briefing in Downing Street, London, on coronavirus (COVID-19). Photo: PA

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People who have recovered from coronavirus are developing antibodies to the virus in medical studies, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England has revealed.

While the discovery does not guarantee anyone who has had the illness and recovered will be able to avoid catching it again, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said in early tests patients had developed the immune system protein which may fight off the virus.

Prof Van-Tam said the “overwhelming majority” of people who had recovered from Covid-19 were found to have antibodies in their bloodstream but it was not yet known for sure whether they would be immune from a second case of the disease or for how long the antibodies would last.

He said “we just haven’t had this disease around on the planet in humans for long enough” to know whether those who had recovered were immune.

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And he said that antibodies produced in response to other human coronaviruses “don’t persist necessarily for years and years and years” although it was unknown what would happen in the case of Covid-19.

“We can’t make the science go any faster than how quickly our bodies go in terms of maintaining the antibodies,” he said.