Hospital staffers with mild COVID-19 cases developed antibodies, study shows

The majority of doctors and nurses who contracted mild cases of COVID-19 while working at the front lines of the pandemic developed antibodies to ward off the disease, a new French study shows.

The research, conducted by Institut Pasteur and university hospitals in Strasbourg, evaluated 160 doctors and nurses in northeastern France.

Only one person didn’t have antibodies present within 15 days of the onset of symptoms, according to the study, which added that 98 percent of the health care professionals had developed antibodies capable of neutralizing the virus 41 days after they were infected.

The study has not yet been peer-reviewed and was first reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Antibody research is one of the critical areas of study in the battle against COVID-19.

Health experts in the U.S. have repeatedly said that widespread testing is needed for the country’s economy to reopen safely. As such, antibody tests have been widely produced during the pandemic, but experts have been wary to say that the presence of antibodies equates to immunity from the virus.

On April 24, the World Health Organization said that there wasn’t any evidence yet that people who recover from COVID-19 and develop antibodies for the virus are immune.

In the U.S., there have been over 1.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 98,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.