More than one in five New Yorkers may have already had the new coronavirus, a testing sample showed Thursday, suggesting infections are much higher than confirmed cases suggest, reports AFP. Widespread testing -- including for antibodies -- is viewed as key to American states being able to lift stay-at-home orders and reopen their shuttered economies.
The presence of antibodies means a person has already been infected with the virus and might mean they are immune, meaning they could likely return to work without catching the illness again. A total of 3,000 customers at supermarkets across the state of New York were randomly tested for coronavirus antibodies this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
Almost 14 percent of them registered positive, he told reporters. In New York City, 21 percent of tests came back positive. Those would translate to roughly 2.6 million people statewide and around 1.7 million people in the Big Apple as having already had the new coronavirus.
