Health and Healthcare

Almost 20% of New York City Residents Infected With COVID-19: New Study

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: November 4, 2020 4:53 am

Last Updated: November 4, 2020 7:03 am

A new study from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai shows that slightly less than 20% of New York City residents have been infected by COVID-19, a figure much higher than any official numbers. If accurate, it almost certainly means the U.S. count is too low.

The test was conducted by an analysis of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike antibodies in weekly intervals from the start of February through July 2020 and utilized more than 10,000 plasma samples from patients at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The start of the analysis period means that COVID-19 had started to spread earlier in New York than most official figures show.

The study looked at two groups that were an “‘urgent care’ (UC) group, enriched for COVID-19 cases during the epidemic, and a ‘routine care’ group (RC), which more closely represents the general population.” The tests were based on data taken weekly.

Because the study ended in July, the final results are now three months old, which means the figure is almost certainly much higher.