Antibodies Persist for More Than a Year After COVID-19 Infection, Study Finds

A medical Laboratory scientist tests vials of samples for CCP virus at the University of Washington Medicine virology lab in Seattle, on March 13, 2020. John Moore/Getty Images

The immune systems of the vast majority of people who have been infected with the CCP virus will continue to carry antibodies against the virus for at least 12 months, according to a peer-reviewed study accepted by the European Journal of Immunology on Sept. 24.

Scientists at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare studied the presence of antibodies in 1,292 subjects eight months after infection. They found that 96 percent of the subjects still carried neutralizing antibodies and 66 percent still carried a type of antibody called nucleoprotein IgG.