Study: Naturally Immune People At Little Risk of Infection, Severe Disease
Published by Zachary Stieber for NTD People who recovered from COVID-19 are at little risk of contracting the disease again, according to a study published this week. Researchers in Qatar examined a cohort of over 353,000 people using national databases that contain information about patients with polymerase-chain-reaction-confirmed infections. The studied population contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2, between Feb. 28, 2020, and April 28, 2021. Reinfections were counted if a person tested positive at least 90 days after their first infection. After excluding approximately 87,500 people with a vaccination record, researchers found those with immunity from having recovered from COVID-19 had little risk of reinfection and severe cases of the disease. Just 1,304 reinfections were identified. That means 0.4 percent of people with natural immunity and without a vaccination record got COVID-19 a second time. The odds of severe disease