It is important to note that even if you recover from coronavirus, it doesn’t mean that now you’re safe or are immune to it. That’s because there have been many cases of relapse once a patient has recovered. But how does one test positive for corona after being cured?  

The first thing to know is that up until there is no vaccine available for this virus, no one is completely immune. The bad news is that these vaccines won’t be available till 12-18 months from now. So, it is impossible to assume community immunity for Covid-19.  

What happens when someone gets the coronavirus is that their bodies start developing protective antibodies. These antibodies are the soldiers who fight against the virus to keep the whole body strong and immune. 

But what is not clear is how long these antibodies can continue fighting and provide protection. There may be a period where they have completely shooed the virus away but in no time, it comes back and that’s when there is a relapse.  

And this is why children and elderly people are at so much of a risk. Their antibodies can only fight to a certain extent and may give up a lot sooner.  

What’s possibly scarier than a relapse of Covid-19 and is worrying the scientists is something called reinfection. Covid-19 is one of the strains and if antibodies can fight this virus, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they can also protect you from another strain of the coronavirus.

What this means is that immunity from one strain doesn’t guarantee immunity from another. Although we haven’t reached that stage yet, if the problem of reinfection surfaces, we may be in a lot more trouble than we already are.