Professor Paddy Mallon:

In terms of the national research piece, we have a cohort study called the all-Ireland infectious diseases cohort study which is running in 12 centres around the country, recruiting patients both with and without Covid-19. We just put through 1,000 samples from patients with three antibody tests. We are awaiting the results of those which we expect in the next day or two.

What is emerging is that if one has a mild infection, the chances of having antibodies are lower, the level of antibodies are lower and the chances of those antibodies hanging around are lower. It seems to be that those who are more severely infected may have higher antibody levels. How that corresponds to any protection from future infections, we really do not know.