Researchers from the University of Bonn have concluded that more than 10 times as many people in Germany have likely been infected with the novel coronavirus than the number of confirmed cases.
Researchers say the preliminary results, which have yet to be peer reviewed, serve as a reminder of the dangers of infection by unidentified carriers of the virus.
STUDY’S PREDICTION IS 10 TIMES HIGHER THAN OFFICIAL NUMBERS
The team concluded that about 1.8 million people living in Germany must have been infected, more than 10 times the number of about 160,000 confirmed cases so far,by analysing blood and nasal swabs from a random sample of 919 people living in a town on the Dutch border, which had among the highest death tolls in Germany.
The country also announced on Monday that it reached a deal with Swiss drugmaker Roche to get 3 million coronavirus antibody tests in May and 5 million monthly thereafter.