(CNN) — Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for the coronavirus response with the World Health Organization, said there isn’t enough research yet to determine if someone is immune to Covid-19 once they recover from the virus.
“At the present time, four months into this pandemic, we’re not able to say that an antibody response means that someone is immune,” Van Kerkhove said.
“Right now, there are no studies that evaluate the antibody response as it relates to immunity, so we can’t say that an antibody response means that someone is immune,” she said, adding there are a number of studies underway.
Van Kerkhove said officials expect that people infected with Covid-19 will have some level of protection. “What we don’t know right now is, how strong that protection is and if that’s seen in everybody that is infected, and for how long that lasts,” she said.
Early results from several countries “suggest that a large proportion of the population remains susceptible,” Van Kerkhove said. She added that it is “an important feature because that means that there still are people that this virus can infect.”
