Covid antibodies can last 12 months

More than 95 percent of Covid-19 patients in a new Faroese study still have antibodies that fight Covid-19 a full year after infection.

Previous studies have shown that these antibodies last at least eight months.

“This is the first time we can prove that Covid-19 patients still have antibodies against the virus 12 months after infection,” says senior researcher Maria Skaalum Petersen.

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Peter Garred, professor at the University of Copenhagen and a specialist at the Danish National Hospital, co-authored the study. He says the new findings are of great importance:

“Our results indicate that most Covid-19 patients are partly or wholly immune to reinfection from the same strain for up to a year after the initial infection,” he says.

Blood samples from 405 Faroese residents who tested positive for Covid-19 in the March-December period were used in the new study.

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According to the latest vaccination figures on corona.fo, updated yesterday, 11,751 people (22.1 percent of the population) have received the first shot of the vaccine, while 5,529 (10.4 percent) have received the second shot.

For further information about Covid-19 in the Faroes, visit corona.fo.

Read the Faroese version of this article here

Translated by prosa.fo

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