The WHO stated, “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection,” in an April 24 scientific brief.

However, health experts disagree.
They emphasize that the presence of antibodies indicates protection from future infection by the virus that causes COVID-19, but what’s unknown is how long that protection will last.

Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, told The Guardian that everyone, or almost everyone, who recovers from COVID-19 “will have developed immunity, otherwise they would not have recovered.”
He added, “What we do not know is how long that immunity will last. It almost certainly will not last for life.”

The WHO walked back the controversial statement in a social media post on April 25, admitting, “We expect that most people who are infected with #COVID19 will develop an antibody response that will provide some level of protection.”

So far, the virus has spread to nearly 3 million people worldwide. However, many people don’t show symptoms, and recent studies suggest up to 80 percent of people with SARS-CoV-2 are “silent carriers.”

Testing of pregnant women in New York City revealed that “at this point in the pandemic in New York City, most of the patients who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 at delivery were asymptomatic.”

Testing also revealed that “the true prevalence of infection may be underreported because of false-negative results of tests to detect SARS-CoV-2.”