COVID-19 Prevalence Far Exceeded Early Pandemic Cases.

• Position: MEDICINE & HEALTH

The prevalence of COVID-19 in the U.S. during spring and summer of 2020 far exceeded the known number of cases and that infection affected the country unevenly, maintains a study from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and National Cancer Institute.

For every diagnosed COVID-19 case in this time frame, the researchers estimate that there were 4.8 undiagnosed cases, representing an additional 16,800,000 cases by July atone. The team's analysis of blood samples from people who did not have a previously diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infection, along with socioeconomic, health, and demographic data, offers insight into the undetected spread of the virus and subgroup vulnerability to undiagnosed infection.

"This study helps account for how quickly the virus spread to all corners of the country and the globe," says Bruce Tromberg, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, one of the institutes that...