Coronavirus: Africa to receive 270 million vaccine doses - Ramaphosa
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Jan 16, 2021
People who have been infected by Covid-19 may have immunity to the virus for around five months, according to preliminary findings in a new study led by Public Health England (PHE).
Since June 2020, Public Health England (PHE) has been performing regular antibody and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing on 20,787 healthcare workers, including frontline clinical staff and those in non-clinical roles, to study how long immunity following infection may last. Scientists found 44 potential reinfections out of which 42 were cases of possible reinfection and two were probable reinfections among a total of 6,614 participants with Covid antibodies.
The study was conducted on tens of thousands of healthcare workers across the United Kingdom starting from June 2020 for the presence of Covid-19 infections or antibodies. Young said it will be interesting to see whether people previously infected with Covid-19 and are subsequently vaccinated have "an even longer-lived protective immune response" and whether or not these findings hold true for the new virus variant now spreading in the United Kingdom. "Our economies are down, our people are dying", John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told a press conference. It's a vital question with its roots in the science of immunology: indeed, with some viruses, such as chicken pox, the patient becomes immune for life after contracting them; in the case of other viruses, such as many influenzas, patients' immune systems "forget" how to identify and protect agains the virus after a period of time, which may be months or years. The 44 people who got reinfected among the 6614 people indicate that 83 per cent of the people are protected from reinfection.
To date, President Cyril Ramaphosa has managed to secure approximately 1.5 million Covid-19 doses for the country's health care workers.
Millions of people who have already recovered from coronavirus are likely to have protection greater than the Oxford vaccine, raising questions as to whether people should be antibody tested to avoid wasting jabs. It is therefore crucial that everyone continues to follow the rules and stays at home, even if they have previously had COVID-19, to prevent spreading the virus to others.
He said there is also "close collaboration" between the AU and the World Bank to ensure that member states can access an additional $5 billion either to buy vaccines or pay for delivery of vaccines committed on their behalf by the bank. It means that the new strain can infect people with a higher concentration of virus particles, which accounts for higher levels of transmission as well. Previous studies have suggested natural immunity lasts between three and six months.
