Public Health England Recruits 10,000 Volunteers To Begin Study On COVID-19 Antibodies

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th August, 2020) Public Health England (PHE) on Wednesday announced that it had recruited all 10,000 volunteers needed to begin the study to establish whether people who have survived COVID-19 are able to get reinfected.

All 10,000 volunteers were recruited from the ranks of the National Health Service (NHS) to take part in the SIREN (SARS-CoV-2 Immunity & REinfection EvaluatioN) study, a PHE statement read.

"Every day we learn more and more about the impacts of becoming infected with COVID-19, but we don't know if you can get it again, if you can pass it on, or if you develop immunity. We urgently need to find out the answers to these questions as rapidly as possible," Professor Susan Hopkins from Public Health England, said in the statement.

Hopkins went on to express her gratitude to the doctors, nurses and orderlies who have signed up for the year-long study.

Minister of Innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care, Lord Bethel, underscored the importance of what he called the largest clinical study in the world to beating the coronavirus.

Preliminary results are expected before winter, the statement said, but the study will take place over the course of 12 months to explore how factors like ethnicity, gender and age affect the chances of reinfection.