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Coronavirus pandemic

Only 5.6% of symptomless patients in St. Petersburg have antibodies to coronavirus — study

The study embraced 1,276 coronavirus-positive volunteers aged from 11 to 93 who had no COVID-19 symptoms

© Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, May 15. /TASS/. Less than six percent of symptomless coronavirus patients have antibodies to the virus, the press service of St. Petersburg’s health committee told TASS on Friday, citing the results of the study conducted by the Virology Center of St. Petersburg’s Hospital No 40.

The study embraced 1,276 coronavirus-positive volunteers aged from 11 to 93 who had no COVID-19 symptoms.

"The idea is that many hope that after having mild forms of the disease they could be spared from it. Practice however shows that it is not so. So, people should not relax. The immunity stratum is not that thick," the press service said.

The tests on the basis of enzyme-linked immunoassay were conducted from early April. "Men and women in all age categories had similar representation. The study has demonstrated that only 5.6% of participants, or 69% of patients, have antibodies to the coronavirus," it said.

The study was conducted by the Virology Center that was set up on April 1. It is the second after the Russian sanitary watchdog’s reference laboratory (St. Petersburg’s Hygiene and Epidemiology Center) in terms of tests. More than 22,000 tests have been conducted by the center since April 1.

According to the latest update, a total of 9,486 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in St. Petersburg. The city is third among Russian regions, after Moscow and the Moscow region, in terms of coronavirus incidence. As many as 2,005 patients in St. Petersburg have recovered and 74 have died.

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