Hundreds of thousands more than thought may have had coronavirus in L.A., study finds

Hundreds of thousands more people may have had the coronavirus in Los Angeles County than originally confirmed, according to a report by the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The report, released on Monday, said about 2.8% to 5.6% of the county’s adults had COVID-19 antibodies, translating to around 221,000 to 442,000 adults who have been infected. That estimate is 28 to 55 times higher than the 7,994 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported by the time of the study conducted in early April, the report said.

“We haven’t known the true extent of COVID-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms, and the availability of tests has been limited,” lead investigator Neeraj Sood, a USC professor of public policy at USC Price School for Public Policy and senior fellow at USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics said in a statement. “The estimates also suggest that we might have to recalibrate disease prediction models and rethink public health strategies.”

The study’s results haven’t been peer reviewed yet and researchers plan on testing more participants every few weeks in the next months, according to the statement.

Another study, released Friday by Stanford researchers, shows 2.5% to 4.2% of Santa Clara County residents had coronavirus antibodies, McClatchy News reported. Stanford said the county’s residents had 48,000 to 81,000 cases or 50 to 85 times greater than the confirmed cases.