Update: New Data Quantify Expected Protection After Healthcare Workers Recover from COVID-19

It’s been presumed—but not confirmed or quantified—that there’s a window of protection from further infection after an individual recovers from COVID-19. This is especially important when it comes to the healthcare workers who provide care for patients, including the invaluable team members in your urgent care center. Now data published online by The New England Journal of Medicine offers a glimmer of good (and validated) news, however: Antibodies protect most healthcare workers from reinfection for up to 6 months, according to the first prospective study of the subject. The authors assessed for the presence of two antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in 12,541 healthcare workers in the United Kingdom, approximately 10% of whom had a history of polymerase chain reaction–confirmed infection. They found the likelihood of subsequent positive PCR test result to be 1.09 per 10,000 days at risk among those without antibodies, vs 0.13 per 10,000 days among those with anti-spike antibodies—concluding that there’s likely “a substantially reduced risk” for at least 6 months. Nonetheless, it’s important to note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends immunization for those with a history of infection.