One in five New Yorkers may have COVID 19: Report
New York : One in every five New Yorkers were found to have COVID 19 antibodies to the coronavirus, according to preliminary test results described by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday. He claimed that the virus may have spread more widely than expected.
The governor claimed that the number of New Yorkers who may not have known that they were carrying coronavirus could be around 2.7 million.
Meanwhile, the reliability of some early antibody tests to hit the market has been widely questioned, with some - made in China without Food and Drug Administration approval - found by health officials to be deeply flawed.
In America, the research bodies have developed their own tests and conclusion to the antibody tests.
"The testing also can tell you the infection rate in the population — where it’s higher, where it’s lower — to inform you on a reopening strategy," Mr. Cuomo said. "Then when you start reopening, you can watch that infection rate to see if it’s going up and if it’s going up, slow down."
Considering the low reliability of the antibody test, several doctors have recommended to avoid it especially during the time when a decision is to be made on reopening the economy.
Almost 14 percent of those tested in New York were positive, according to preliminary results from the state survey, which sampled approximately 3,000 people over two days at grocery and big-box stores.
Some health experts say that if tests return high rates of false positives — results that incorrectly report a person has antibodies — they could encourage people to abandon protective measures and risk worsening the virus’s spread. Others warn that the true value of coronavirus antibodies is still unknown.
“I’m very ambivalent about these tests, because we don’t really know yet through the science what it means to have an antibody,” said Dr. Joan Cangiarella, the vice-chair of clinical operations at NYU Langone Health’s pathology department.
“We are hoping these antibodies mean you will be immune for some time,” she said. “But I don’t think the data is fully out there to understand if that means that you’re actually immune. And if these antibodies start to decline, what’s that time frame? Does it decline in a year from now?”
