Natural immunity against COVID-19 significantly reduces the risk of reinfection: findings from a cohort of sero-survey participants

ABSTRACT

Conflicting reports on the persistence of antibody levels in individuals recovered from COVID-19 infection, suggest that the immunity against COVID-19 may not be lasting for long. In India, by 30th June, 2021, not less than 30 million people were infected with COVID-19 and 0.39 million people were reported to have lost their life to the disease in India. I the current study we followed up with a subsample of our previous sero-survey participants to assess whether natural immunity against SARS-CoV-2 was associated with a reduced risk of re-infection. We conducted telephonic interview of a total of 3038 participants, out of which 2238 participants responded and 5 participants were found to be not alive, as conveyed by their close relatives. There was a non-response rate of 26.1%. Out of the 2238 participants, 1170 were sero-positive and 1068 were sero-negative for antibody against COVID-19. Our survey found that only 3 individuals in the sero-positive group got infected with COVID-19 whereas 127 individuals reported contracting the infection the sero-negative group. Interestingly, from the 127 sero-negative individuals who later contracted COVID-19 infection, 30 needed hospitalization, out of which 12 were on oxygen therapy, four in ICU and one was on ventilator. At the other hand, from the 3 sero-positives re-infected with COVID-19, one had hospitalization, but didnnot require oxygen support or critical care. These findings reinforce the strong plausibility that development of antibody following natural infection not only protects against re-infection by the virus to a great extent, but also safeguards against progression to severe COVID-19 disease.