COVID SCIENCE UPDATE

COVID-19 infection rate likely much higher than reported - research teams

Coronavirus infection rates are far higher than public health data suggest, three research teams reported on Tuesday. 

For one study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers re-examined more than 16,000 blood samples from routine screenings such as for cholesterol collected from late March through mid May from individuals in 10 widely-spaced US cities.

Based on tests of the samples for evidence that patients had been exposed to the coronavirus, the researchers estimated that the total number of infections in those cities "was between 6- and 24-fold higher than the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in each location."

The other two studies, published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found similar patterns in Georgia and Indiana.

Still, all three studies suggest that most people in all of the studied cities have likely not yet been infected by the virus.

Given that many people remain susceptible, adherence to evidence-based public health mitigation measures like social distancing, face covering, and hand washing "is needed to reduce surges in hospitalizations and prevent morbidity and mortality from COVID-19," the authors of the Indiana study said. -- Reuters