The 22-year-old from High has been exposed about four times.

She participated in the world's first Covid-19 challenge trial, in which live virus was dripped into her nose and her nostrils were closed for several hours, in a deliberate attempt to get her. Her body resisted.

We had multiple rounds of tests, and different methods of testing, like nose and throat swabs, which I had never done before.

Everyone around the person who has resisted catching Covid has fallen sick. Scientists are beginning to find some clues about how they do this.

The hope is that identifying these mechanisms will lead to the development of drugs that will protect people from catching Covid and prevent them from passing it on.

There are other challenge trial participants who have avoided becoming infections. Of the 34 people who were exposed to the virus, 16 did not develop an infectious disease, although around half of them tested positive for low levels of the virus, often several days after exposure.

Transmission electron microscope image of the Sars-CoV-2 virus.

Transmission electron microscope image of the Sars-CoV-2 virus. Photograph: Phanie/Alamy

Prof Christopher Chiu at Imperial said that it was possible that this was a reflection of the immune system shutting down an embryo.

Some of them also reported some mild symptoms, such as a sore throat, fatigue, or headaches, which may be unrelated to virus exposure.

Chiu said that the levels of the virus didn't rise high enough to cause the blood to show the signs of symptoms.

It is possible to shake off Covid before it establishes a proper foothold, according to other studies. During the first wave of the Pandemic, a group of healthcare workers who were exposed to patients but who never tested positive for the disease, were monitored by Dr. Swadling and colleagues at University College London. Blood tests showed that around 15% of them had T cells that were reactive against the virus.