8.4% of hospital staff have anti-bodies against the novel coronavirus
According to figures from a study carried out by the public health institute Sciensano and the Institute of Tropical Medicine, 8.4% of staff working in Belgian hospitals have developed anti-bodies against the novel coronavirus. This is almost double the figure for the population at large. Of those hospital staff found to have antibodies, 90% said that they had had at least 1 symptom of COVID-19 since the start of the epidemic.
Figures from the Red Cross based on analysis of blood given by healthy adult blood donors showed that 4.3% of the population had developed antibodies. The figures from Sciensano and the Institute of Tropical Medicine show that among hospital staff that percentage that have developed antibodies is almost double this at 8.3%.
Sciensano and the Institute of Tropical Medicine tested blood samples from 785 people that work in Belgian hospitals. The tests were carried out between 6 and 10 May.