Major antibody test study shows 6% England infected by Covid-19

People living in London and those of Indian and Asian background are most likely to have been infected by coronavirus, a large study by Imperial College London published on Thursday said, adding that 6% of England’s population has been infected so far.

The 6% reflects 3.4 million people, the study in which over 100,000 volunteers took part, said. Billed as the ‘world’s largest home antibody testing programme for coronavirus’, the study tracked the spread of infection across England after the first peak.

People living in London were most likely to have been infected, as were those working in care homes and health care, and people from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups and people living in larger households, it said.

While research showed several finger prick tests were accurate enough for large-scale surveillance studies to monitor the spread of coronavirus, no antibody fingerpick test has yet met the regulator’s criteria for individual use, which means none are currently approved for use outside of surveillance studies.

Key findings of the report study include: In London, 13% of people had antibodies while in the South West of England it was less than 3%; there were far higher rates in people from Black (17%), Asian (12%) and other (12%) than white (5%) ethnicity. Almost everyone with a confirmed case of the virus was found to have antibodies (96%).

Major antibody test study shows 6% England infected by Covid-19, Bloomberg, Aug 13