Abstract
During the “first wave” of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United Kingdom (March-June 2020), the city of Leicester was particularly hard hit, resulting in reimposed lockdown measures. Although initial polymerase chain reaction testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was attempted within the community, testing was soon abandoned due to an inability to keep up with demand by local laboratories. It is therefore feasible that undiagnosed transmission of COVID-19 in the community by asymptomatic individuals was a real possibility. Therefore, retrospective SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) testing of archived sera from out-patients visiting University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust service was performed to investigate the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the community. A total of 1779 sera samples were tested from samples collected between 16th March and 3rd June 2020, of which 202 (11.35%) were SARS-CoV-2 IgG positive. Positivity was lowest in March (2.54%) at the beginning of the pandemic before peaking in April (17.16%) before a decline in May and June (11.16% and 12.68%, respectively). This retrospective screening offers some insight into the early patterns of SARS-CoV-2 transmission within a sampled community population during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic; supporting the argument for more community screening during high incidences of pandemics.
Keywords: SARS coronavirus; antiviral agents; coronavirus; immune globulin; virus classification.
【저자키워드】 coronavirus, Antiviral agents, SARS Coronavirus, virus classification, immune globulin, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, IgG, pandemic, Antiviral, lockdown, Transmission, virus, immune, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, Measures, Immunoglobulin, sera, Pandemics, Community, Trust, incidence, university, United Kingdom, First wave, SARS-CoV-2 IgG, retrospective, NHS, acute respiratory syndrome, positive, offer, transmission of SARS-CoV-2, asymptomatic individual, polymerase chain, local laboratories, initial, peaking, lowest, resulting, tested, collected, was performed, feasible, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19 pandemic, United Kingdom, First wave, SARS-CoV-2 IgG,