Only 2.9% of Portuguese with antibodies to Covid-19
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The percentage of the Portuguese population with antibodies (seroprevalence) to the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus is estimated at 2.9 percent, a lower than necessary value to achieve potential group immunity.
According to the results of the first Covid-19 National Serological Survey “Portugal registers a global seroprevalence of 2.9 percent of infection by the new coronavirus in its population [close to 300,000 people], with no significant differences found between regions and age groups”, said the National Health Institute Doctor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), promoter of the study.
Seroprevalence was higher in people who reported having had previous contact with a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19 (22.3 percent versus 2.0 percent) and in those with symptoms compatible with the disease – fever, chills, asthenia, odynophagia, cough, dyspnoea, headache, nausea / vomiting and diarrhoea – (6.5 percent versus 2.0 percent).
About 44 percent of people with specific antibodies against the new coronavirus did not report any previous symptoms of Covid-19.
The data shows that the differences between the percentage of the population with Covid-19 antibodies and the number of reported cases of infection are due to difficulties found in surveillance systems in capturing mild or asymptomatic cases of the disease.
The survey aimed to “characterise the distribution of specific antibodies against SARS-CoV-2”, determine the extent of infection in the population resident in Portugal, determine and compare seroprevalence by age group and by Health Region and the numbef of asymptomatic infections.
