Higher SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in workers with lower socioeconomic status in Cape Town, South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Inequality is rife throughout South Africa. The first wave of COVID-19 may have affected people in lower socioeconomic groups worse than the affluent. The SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and the specificity of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests in South Africa is not known.

Methods

We tested 405 volunteers representing all socioeconomic strata from the workforce of a popular shopping and tourist complex in central Cape Town with the Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay. We assessed the association between antibody positivity and COVID-19 symptom status, medical history, and sociodemographic variables. We tested 137 serum samples from healthy controls collected in Cape Town prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, to confirm the specificity of the assay in the local population.

Results

SUBMITTER: Shaw JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7906413 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature