Half of England now has antibodies
MORE than half of people in England are now thought to have antibodies against coronavirus, says the Office for National Statistics.
It estimated that almost 55 per cent of people in private households had virus-fighting antibodies in the week to March 14.
Antibodies, which help the body ward off invading pathogens, are present either through infection or vaccination. In this case most will be through vaccination – with 30 million people in the UK having received at least one dose.
A testing survey revealed the figure was 51 per cent had the antibodies in Wales, 49 per cent in Northern Ireland and 43 per cent in Scotland.
Regional estimates in England ranged from six in 10 testing positive in the North-west to 50 per cent in the South-east.
The positivity rate has surged in the last month – just one in four people in England had antibodies in the 28 days to February 11.
Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at The Open University, said: “The upward trend in antibody positivity in the latest data will principally be because more and more people are being vaccinated, since the level of actual virus infections is fairly low across all the UK countries. “Rates of testing positive are much the highest in the older age groups, where many people have already received at least one dose.” The highest levels were among people aged 70 to 74 years, with 91 per cent testing positive in England.
For those aged 80 and over the figure was 86 per cent, and for those aged 75 to 79 it was 89 per cent. However, the ONS said the survey only included people in private homes and not hospitals or care homes – which were prioritised for vaccination – meaning the true prevalence may be different.
The statistics agency also noted it was seeing evidence of a reduction in antibodies in older people in the most recent data.
It said this may be because antibodies in some who received a first vaccine dose had fallen below detectable levels and they have not received their second jab.
It added: “This does not mean that a person has no protection against Covid-19, since an immune response does not rely on the presence of antibodies alone.
“We also do not yet know exactly how much antibodies need to rise to give protection.”