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Covid-19 ‘may become as common as the cold’
A medical worker of the Medical Emergency Services of Madrid (SUMMA 112) runs a rapid test for Covid-19 at the Lope de Vega Cultural Center in the Vallecas neighbourhood, in Madrid, on October 1, 2020
Photo credit: Oscar Del Pozo AFP
What you need to know:
- Individuals may become re-infected after recovery, as is the case with the common cold.
- For Covid-19, it is widely believed that this is attained when 50 to 70 per cent of the population has been exposed to the virus and developed antibodies.
Although studies show that most Covid-19 patients who recover develop antibodies, it remains unclear if the immunity protects them from subsequent infection and how long the protection may last.
This makes re-infection possible within as short as three months after first diagnosis. Dr Ambrose Agweyu, the head of epidemiology and demography at the Kemri-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, said Sars-CoV-2 may ultimately become as common as the other four endemic human coronaviruses — HKU1, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-229E, and HCoV-OC43.
