Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to undertake long-term immunity monitoring of people who have contracted the omicron covid-19 variant.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is continuing to monitor the development, persistence and cross-protection of antibody immune cell responses by both epidemiological and laboratory-based investigations, for many different variants of COVID-19 including the Omicron variant.

The UKHSA monitors all SARS-CoV-2 reinfections, defined as a second or later episode of infection routinely based on an interval of at least 90 days between two positive PCR or lateral flow tests.

Analysis from the prospective cohort study SARS-CoV-2 Immunity and Reinfection Evaluation (SIREN), shows that of over 44,000 healthcare workers undergo frequent SARS-CoV-2 PCR and antibody testing for 12-months and up to 24-months for participants joining extended follow-up. Many participants who have recently developed Omicron infections, are under investigation and will continue to be monitored over the coming months. The study is available at the following link:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.29.21267006v1