Dramatic Rise of Seroprevalence Rates of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies among Healthy Blood Donors: The evolution of a Pandemic

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in more than 106 million cases of confirmed infection and more than 2.3 million deaths worldwide as of February 11th 2021. Seroprevalence studies are extremely useful in studying and assessing the epidemiological status in the community and the degree of spread. They help decision makers in implementing or relaxing mitigating measures to contain the disease in addition to other benefits. Objective: To study the seroprevalence rates of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among healthy blood donors in Jordan, at various points of time as the pandemic evolves in the community. Methods: A total of 1374 blood donor were tested for the SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 3 groups. The first group of 746 and the second of 348 individuals were tested in June and September of 2020 respectively. The 3rd group of 292 were tested in early February of 2021. We utilized a qualitative assay that uses Electrochemiluminescence method (ECLIA) that has a specificity and sensitivity of 99.8% and 100% respectively. Results: The first 2 groups representing the months of January to September of 2020, where the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases were several hundred to 3000 showed a seroprevalence rate of 0% (95% CI 0.00%, 0.51%). The 3rd group representing late January and early February 2021 when the number of reported confirmed case has reached 100 folds the numbers of September 2020, showed a seroprevalence of 27.4% (95% CI 22.5% and 32.9%). Conclusions: a dramatic rise in seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was seen among healthy blood donors in Jordan in parallel with wide-spread intracommunity transmission of the disease. This information is useful to assess the degree of herd immunity and provides for better understanding of the pandemic.

High seroprevalence for SARS-CoV-2 infection in South America, but still not enough for herd immunity!

“…Nevertheless, unfortunately, some of them have shown an increase in the seroprevalence of different populations. For example, a recent study in Jordan ( Sughayer et al, 2021 ) stated the importance of seroprevalence studies for SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthy blood donors. In this sense, we would like to complement by discussing some seroprevalence data in South America, a region that, as is known, has also been strongly affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).…”

Perception, knowledge and attitude towards influenza vaccine during COVID-19 pandemic in Jordanian population

“…2021, who found that there are 8 cases for every confirmed case by testing SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 1374 blood donor. [50] This indicates that the official number of infections is lower than the real numbers according to the current representative sample. This behavior is concerning in two aspects.…”

COVID-19: SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in a Blood Bank in Southern Brazil

“…Among the participants, 889 (87.6%) of them were residents of Joinville, with the rest of the donors from calculate the absolute risks of infection and predict the rate of viral spread [7,8]. In this context, it can be said that asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections contribute to herd immunity, and can boost up to 50% in the strength of infection at the peaks of an outbreak, making tracking of this population substantially important [9].…”