An antibody study on the coronavirus suggests that the number of unreported cases of infected people is significantly higher. In Munich four times more people are said to have been sick than was recorded.
The corona virus continues to spread in Germany. The Robert Koch Institute currently reports new negative records every week, and more than 21,000 new infections have been recorded in 24 hours. In fact, the numbers could be even higher – the results of a recently published study from Munich suggest.
In the city, four times more people are said to have been infected with the corona virus than was recorded by June 2020. This means that the number of unreported Covid 19 cases in society could be much higher than previously assumed.
Scientists from the Department of Infection and Tropical Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich started an antibody study in the course of the first corona wave. A total of more than 5,300 people aged 14 and over from the Bavarian region are said to have participated, which means that the study is rated as representative for the Munich area.
Four times more infected people than recorded
According to researchers, two percent of all Munich residents had already developed antibodies against the coronavirus in the first half of the year. However, that is four times as many infected people as were officially reported.
The number of unreported cases of people infected with the coronavirus is therefore likely to be significantly higher than the registered cases. Sick people whose infection is asymptomatic or only mild might not even notice that they have Covid-19 – and thus fall through the cracks.
There are, however, other important findings from the study: "According to our data, the mortality rate from COVID-19 infections is almost 1% of people with antibody formation, many times higher than that for seasonal flu infections," the scientists write in the study summary. An infection with the coronavirus is therefore much more dangerous than a regular flu.
The general antibody situation emerges from the study as a sobering figure: It is assumed that the results can be transferred to Germany. Even if the number of unreported cases is four times as high as the number of cases recorded, it is still at a low level. If only two percent of the population in Munich have developed antibodies, the country is still a long way from herd immunity.
Sources used: LMU, Der Spiegel