A recent study found that more than half of people infected with the omicron variant of the coronavirus were unaware of their infection.
The study was published on August 17 in the newspaper website.gammaThe science confirms the positive fact that Omicron tends to cause relatively mild symptoms (or no symptoms at all) in vaccinated people.
The downside to these findings is that many infected people may inadvertently spread the virus.
The study followed 210 staff and patients with at least two blood samples for antibody testing, one before infection with the variant and one following it.
The researchers analyzed for levels of coronavirus antibodies.
After most of the people in the study had been vaccinated, the researchers measured levels of two different types of antibodies: those made by the immune system in response to vaccines, and those made by the immune system following infection with the virus.
At the start of the study, all volunteers had to have levels of infection-related antibodies below a certain threshold, indicating that they had not recently contracted the virus.
In this way, any rise in antibody levels was a sign of infection.
Participants also filled out health questionnaires describing their symptoms and any coronavirus test to determine if they had an infection during the study period.
The researchers found that 56% of the people in the study who tested positive for the virus were unaware of their infection, either because they had no symptoms or only experienced mild symptoms they attributed to a cold or allergy.
These findings are supported by early data from around the world that previously indicated that during the pandemic, between 25% to 40% of COVID-19 infections were asymptomatic.
The data also showed that people’s awareness of their infection status had improved following rapid at-home tests became widely available earlier in 2022.