More and more people are now immune to COVID-19 after having contracted the virus and recovered. Should they be subject to the same restrictions as everyone else?

When Marty flew back to Australia from the US at the end of March, he was welcomed home with a positive coronavirus test.

"From the moment I learnt I had a fever I had started to brace for the possibility of testing positive," he told Hack.

"It wasn't a massive surprise, I wasn't particularly scared or worried when I found out, it was just a question of what happened next"

It turned out the next step was quarantine, locked in a Sydney hotel room for almost 18 days.

He was allowed out last week. But even though he's most likely immune and can't spread the virus, he's still subject to the blanket social distancing restrictions that have been designed to stop outbreaks here.

"It's funny because when I walk around and I see people with masks and gloves and I kinda have this feeling that I'm invincible."

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Whatsapp Marty was diagnosed with coronavirus after returning from the US.

"I know it's not completely proven that I can't get it again but it seems like it's incredibly unlikely I can get it again.

"[It's] comforting knowing I can hug a friend or go and see my grandparents without worrying about whether I have this thing. That's kinda liberating."

The risk of a second infection

Marty is quite careful with how he talks about his COVID immunity. Since being diagnosed he's obsessed over coronavirus news and reports of people who've contracted the virus, recovered, and then caught the virus again.

Those stories have mostly come from South Korea, where more than 100 people have tested positive twice, as well as China.

Despite these reports, it's not yet clear whether people who have had coronavirus can get it again, according to Professor Nigel McMillian, the director of infectious diseases and immunology at The Menzies Health Institute.

"The evidence that says you can't be reinfected is actually several fold," he told Hack.

"We know our SARS patients from 2002 had antibodies that lasted at least three years and for MERS, which is another coronavirus, at least 12 months."

He says there have also been tests on primates that have found they can't be reinfected.

"On the negative side, we see these reports of patients having the virus detected again after they've recovered," he said.

There are several explanations for this, including the possibility that the tests are only detecting the inactive virus (a false positive), or that the tests that initially cleared the patients of coronavirus was wrong (a false negative).

"The jury is still out on this idea of reinfection, but it would be incredibly unusual," Nigel told Hack.

Germany, Italy, US considering 'immunity passports'

Despite the chance that people may be able to get COVID-19 twice, several countries around the world are considering immunity passports or certificates that could exempt recovered people from coronavirus restrictions.

Germany, Italy and even the United States are considering this idea, but the option wasn't there for Marty in Australia.

"I enquired about getting a certificate when I went through that process," he told Hack.

"Nurses and doctors kept saying it's something they're looking into but they're not sure if it's going to happen, so all I've got now is a letter saying I've had it and I've recovered."

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Whatsapp Marty while he was being treated for coronavirus. He's now fine.

Nigel McMillian from The Menzies Health Institute is a fan of the passport or certificate idea and would like to see them handed out to the 4,200 people who've recovered in Australia so far.

"The idea is that if it's true that you are recovered and you're immune," he said.

"We would like to put people like that back to work, particularly in places where there's a high risk of being exposed, so emergency rooms, fever clinics, hospitals of course, bus drivers."

However, he's also of the certificates creating a two-tier system where one group is allowed to move around while the others have to stay inside. This could conceivably create an incentive for people to get infected sooner.

"Are people going to go off and have corona parties, but not with the beer, and get themselves infected?" he asked.

"I suppose there are always going to be individuals that are going to think that, but there have been cases of quite young and healthy people dying of this.

"It's not a lottery ticket I'd like to buy."