Study at site of Austria’s worst outbreak finds lasting coronavirus immunity
- A study of residents in the ski resort of Ischgl found that at least eight months after contracting the virus the vast majority of people remained immune
- The findings also suggest that herd immunity may start to kick in earlier than widely believed
The findings provide more insight into how long immunity lasts after infection, and also suggest that herd immunity may start to kick in earlier than widely believed, the team behind the study said.
Austria’s main public health agency AGES believes the Ischgl outbreak, in which thousands of people from across Europe were infected, began in February last year, before the first cases in Austria were detected.
The Medical University of Innsbruck conducted a study in April that found 42 per cent of Ischgl’s population had antibodies for the virus. A follow-up study conducted in November and published on Thursday found the vast majority of those who had antibodies in the first study still had them in the second.
“In close to 90 per cent of those who tested seropositive in April, antibodies could also be detected in November,” virologist Dorothee van Laer, one of the scientists who carried out the study, said in a statement. The study involved just over 900 people, 801 of whom took part in the first one.
“Despite a slight fall in the concentration of antibodies we can … say that immunity is relatively stable,” she added.
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The university said its study was one of the biggest of its kind and over one of the longest periods, helping to answer the question of how long immunity lasts after infection.