CDC: Connecticut had 6 times the infections originally reported

Connecticut had at least six times the number of people infected with COVID-19 as the state reported — an estimated 167,700 residents infected by the disease at the beginning of May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

The CDC said its first antibody study of 1,431 Connecticut residents indicated that nearly 5% of the state’s population had antibodies to COVID-19 at the beginning of May. Connecticut was the second-highest of five states tested for antibodies in the agency’s first study. Only New York showed a higher rate of infection: nearly 7%.

The blood samples in Connecticut were taken from April 26 to May 3. On May 3, the state reported that 29,300 residents had tested positive for the coronavirus, about one sixth of the infections the antibody tests discovered.

The CDC partnered with commercial laboratories to conduct a large-scale geographic seroprevalence survey that tested for COVID-19 antibodies in clinical blood specimens from Connecticut, South Florida, the New York City metro area, Missouri, Utah and western Washington State.

The survey includes people who had blood specimens tested for reasons unrelated to COVID-19, such as for a routine or sick-visit blood test by commercial laboratories. The CDC aims to test about 1,800 samples collected from each testing area about every three to four weeks to determine what percentage of people tested already have antibodies against COVID-19, and how that percentage changes over time in each area.

The CDC plans to expand the survey to an additional four states, including California, Louisiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Utah.

Increased use of antibody testing will provide a snapshot of how many Americans actually had the disease even when they did not think they ever had it, experienced few or mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.

On Thursday, CDC Chief Robert Redfield said that nationally coronavirus infections are likely 10 times higher than the 2.4 million determined by testing.

While it’s not 100% precise, antibody testing is thought to provide the fullest snapshot of the prevalence of COVID-19 in any given place.

Getting tested

Their suspicions confirmed Jennifer Vandergraaf and her husband are among those in Connecticut who had COVID-19 but were never in the state’s daily count of positive cases.

Near the end of March, the couple did not feel well. Vandergraaf, 56, developed a cough and tightness in the chest. Her husband had deep body aches and an upset stomach. But the Vandergraafs, who live in New Canaan, initially did not think they had contracted COVID-19 because they did not have a high fever or other signs associated with infections. So they did not get tested, especially since the tests were scarce at the time.

But because of lingering doubts — especially since they both lost their senses of taste and smell — Vandergraaf and her husband eventually underwent antibody testing in May.

Both tests came back positive for COVID-19.

Now the couple is recovered and Jennifer Vandergraaf says she’s glad they underwent the testing.

“I have family with serious medical issues and I wanted to get tested,” she said. Since the test determined she and her husband have coronavirus antibodies, she hopes they have some immunity to the disease, at least in the short term.

That’s perhaps the biggest question antibody testing might be able to answer — whether someone who has been infected with COVID-19 has developed any immunity to the disease. There’s no definitive answer yet.