How much will the COVID-19 pandemic keep us in suspense and what about the effectiveness of our countermeasures like social distancing and lockdowns? In order to obtain reliable data, the Tropical Institute of the LMU Hospital Munich launched the research project "Prospective COVID-19 Cohort Munich" (KoCo19) in spring 2020. With the support of the Bavarian State Government, KoCo19 examines the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the Munich population. It also determines the antibody status or how many people have contracted the virus without ever noticing any symptoms.
So far 3,000 households have been visited since March 2020, resulting in more than 6,000 participants for KoCo19. The results show that during the first wave of COVID-19, 2% of Munich residents developed antibodies against the virus; which shows that the proportion of antibody carriers is about four times as high as the proportion of officially registered infections. The mortality rate from COVID-19 infections is almost 1% of people with antibodies, many times higher than that for seasonal flu infections. In the further course of the study, the infection status of participants will be examined and further health information will be collected.
The detailed results are presented in this video (in German with national language subtitles):
For further information please follow this link: http://www.klinikum.uni-muenchen.de/Abteilung-fuer-Infektions-und-Tropenmedizin/en/COVID-19/KoCo19/Current-information/index.html