Serological testing of blood donors to characterise the impact of COVID-19 in Melbourne, Australia, 2020.

ABSTRACT: Rapidly identifying and isolating people with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection has been a core strategy to contain COVID-19 in Australia, but a proportion of infections go undetected. We estimated SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody prevalence (seroprevalence) among blood donors in metropolitan Melbourne following a COVID-19 outbreak in the city between June and September 2020. The aim was to determine the extent of infection spread and whether seroprevalence varied demographically in proportion to reported cases of infection. The design involved stratified sampling of residual specimens from blood donors (aged 20-69 years) in three postcode groups defined by low (<3 cases/1,000 population), medium (3-7 cases/1,000 population) and high (>7 cases/1,000 population) COVID-19 incidence based on case notifi

SUBMITTER: Machalek DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9258843 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature