Some 96.3% of people aged 80 and over in England were likely to have antibodies at the start of December 2022, up from 89.2% in early September.
For 75 to 79-year-olds, the proportion stands at 95.8%, up from 87.4%. ...
The figures are “likely a result of the vaccination booster campaign”, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which has published the data.
There aren’t any studies or pre-print reports currently available on how effective rapid tests are with XBB, but scientists predict that at-home tests will continue to work well with the latest crop of variants.
...researchers have found that viruses that surge in the winter, including influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2 — the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 — survive best when the relative humidity in the air falls below about 40 percent.
Exactly how long protection lasts after a COVID infection isn’t one-size-fits-all. A few factors make it impossible to say exactly how long you’re protected from reinfection.
