It is one of the most frequently asked questions these days as more than 4.5 million people have recovered from the coronavirus infection worldwide. The short answer to the question is :
Yes! You can get re-infected but it's unlikely. 

As COVID-19 is still a very new disease and much about it is still unknown so health experts don't yet know whether we really do become immune to the viral infection after we're infected. And if we do become immune, we don't know how long that might last. The longest a recovered patient has a history of being covid-free is about six months. This time period is too short in medicine years.

Our knowledge and predictions about novel coronavirus are based on the past experiences of viral diseases and especially on the viruses from the coronavirus family. Other viruses of the family appear to cause some immunity. Studies show that people are protected against the coronaviruses that cause the common cold for up to a year after infection. And our bodies have antibodies against the SARS coronavirus for up to 4 years.

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By now, we also know that people who've recovered from COVID-19 do make antibodies against the virus. But so far, there's no conclusive evidence that this will protect them against the virus if they're exposed to it again.

According to guidelines of the World Health Organization :

"There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection."

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Experts say the body’s antibody response, triggered by the onset of a virus, means it is highly unlikely that patients who've recovered from COVID-19 can get re-infected soon after contracting the virus. Antibodies are normally produced in a patient’s body around 7-10 days after the initial onset of a virus.

Though re-infection is unlikely but it's still a possibility. Some reports tell us that China reported 5%-10% such people who had recovered from COVID and then tested positive again. In South Korea, more than 160 people tested positive again after they had recovered from COVID-19.

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But health authorities believe that there can be multiple reasons for this.

>> It could be that these people got infected again.
>> Novel Coronavirus got reactivated in their bodies after being quiet for a while.
>> A +ve test after recovery could also be detecting the residual viral RNA that has remained in the body, but not in high enough amounts to cause disease.
>> One, perhaps the most likely, explanation could be that the test results were flawed. Either the one that cleared them of the disease or the one that indicated re-infection.