Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May;96(5):1165-1174.
doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.03.015. Epub 2021 Mar 26.

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in a Multistate Academic Medical Center

Rickey E Carter  1 , Elitza S Theel  2 , Laura E Breeher  2 , Melanie D Swift  2 , Nathan A Van Brunt  2 , Windell R Smith  3 , Lorrie L Blanchfield  3 , Elizabeth A Daugherty  2 , Alyssa B Chapital  4 , Kathleen M Matson  4 , Katherine A Bews  2 , Patrick W Johnson  3 , Robert A Domnick  2 , Diane E Joyce  2 , Holly L Geyer  4 , Dane Granger  2 , Heather R Hilgart  2 , Coleman T Turgeon  2 , Karen A Sanders  2 , Dietrich Matern  2 , Aziza Nassar  3 , Priya Sampathkumar  2 , Caitlin M Hainy  2 , Robert R Orford  4 , Celine M Vachon  2 , Roshanak Didehban  2 , William G Morice  2 , Henry H Ting  3 , Amy W Williams  2 , Richard J Gray  4 , Kent R Thielen  3 , Gianrico Farrugia  2 ; Mayo Clinic Serology Screening Program Operations Team
Affiliations

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in a Multistate Academic Medical Center

Rickey E Carter et al. Mayo Clin Proc. 2021 May.

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies in health care personnel.

Methods: The Mayo Clinic Serology Screening Program was created to provide a voluntary, two-stage testing program for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies to health care personnel. The first stage used a dried blood spot screening test initiated on June 15, 2020. Those participants identified as reactive were advised to have confirmatory testing via a venipuncture. Venipuncture results through August 8, 2020, were considered. Consent and authorization for testing was required to participate in the screening program. This report, which was conducted under an institutional review board-approved protocol, only includes employees who have further authorized their records for use in research.

Results: A total of 81,113 health care personnel were eligible for the program, and of these 29,606 participated in the screening program. A total of 4284 (14.5%) of the dried blood spot test results were "reactive" and warranted confirmatory testing. Confirmatory testing was completed on 4094 (95.6%) of the screen reactive with an overall seroprevalence rate of 0.60% (95% CI, 0.52% to 0.69%). Significant variation in seroprevalence was observed by region of the country and age group.

Conclusion: The seroprevalence for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies through August 8, 2020, was found to be lower than previously reported in other health care organizations. There was an observation that seroprevalence may be associated with community disease burden.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Estimated seroprevalence overall and by selected entral testing laboratory in Rochester stratification factors. Estimated seroprevalence is shown as determined by the Roche Diagnostics total antibody test (except for Arizona which used the Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics immunoglobulin G [IgG] antibody test). (A) The overall prevalence of the 29,606 health care personnel (HCP) studied. (B) Results are shown by test region. The test region was the location at which the HCP submitted the dried blood spot specimen and may not reflect the primary work location. (C,D) Results are broken down by age groups and sex, respectively. Error bars are 95% CIs. Percentages reported in each bar show the estimated seroprevalence. For each category, the total sample size is also given. MCHS, Mayo Clinic Health System; MN, Minnesota; NW, northwest; SE, southeast; SW, southwest; WI, Wisconsin.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Association of community coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and estimated seroprevalence. Shown are the cumulative numbers of positive test results by health referral region through August 8, 2020. The association of cumulative test results and seroprevalence is measured by the Pearson correlation coefficient. MCHS, Mayo Clinic Health System; NW MN, northwest; SE, southeast; SW, southwest.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Estimated prevalence for any positive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test. This figure reports the estimated prevalence of positive COVID-19 tests originating from either molecular or serum-based serologic tests. (A) Shown is the overall prevalence of the 81,113 health care personnel (HCP) studied. (B) The results are broken down by the participant’s home state. (C,D) Shows results broken down by age groups and sex, respectively. Error bars are 95% CIs. Percentages reported in each bar are the estimated seroprevalence. For each category, the total sample size is also given.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Theel E.S., Harring J., Hilgart H., Granger D. Performance characteristics of four high-throughput immunoassays for detection of IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. J Clin Microbiol. 2020;58(8) - PMC - PubMed
    1. New York Times public repository. https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data
    1. USA Facts Our nation, in numbers. https://usafacts.org/
    1. Moscola J., Sembajwe G., Jarrett M. Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in health care personnel in the New York City Area. JAMA. 2020;324(9):893–895. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Self W.H., Tenforde M.W., Stubblefield W.B. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among frontline health care personnel in a multistate hospital network — 13 academic medical centers, April–June 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(35):1221–1226. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms