Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support studies (1) in a community setting, and (2) that extend into the convalescent period, to establish factors that affect the duration of effective immunity to COVID-19.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are jointly funding the United Kingdom Coronavirus Immunology Consortium with £6.5 million, which will address key research themes on immunity to COVID-19 including cross reactivity with seasonal coronaviruses.

Other relevant NIHR-UKRI funded studies include the STORY study to understand the severity of COVID-19 disease in children and evaluate antibody responses; Virus Watch looking at household transmission; and the INSTINCT study investigating the epidemiology and immunology of COVID-19 infection in households.

The NIHR’s Health Protection Research Unit in Respiratory Infections is also looking at the size and longevity of the immune response.