This highly supervised exam was conducted through Indiana University’s Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI in collaboration with the Indiana State Department of Health. The findings were published on July 21 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the clinical publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Using data to guide decisions has been the foundation of how the State of Indiana responds to the pandemic,” Indiana Gov. Eric J. Holcomb said. “We are fortunate to have the Fairbanks School of Public Health conduct this first-of-its kind study for us and look forward to the information that will come with future waves of the random sample testing.”
Between April 25 and May 1, researchers tested more than 4,600 Hoosiers for viral infections and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the new guilty coronavirus of COVID-19. This issue includes more than 3,600 Americans who were randomly chosen from a major list of Indiana citizens derived from tax returns, adding taxpayers and dependents; and 900 additional volunteers recruited through a non-random reach to African-American and Hispanic communities to gain a deeper insight into the virus’s activity among affected populations.
“Because we can’t verify everyone, random pattern verification allows us to hopefully assess the spread of COVID-19 in Indiana,” said Nir Menachemi, senior scientist and fairbanks professor and president at the Fairbanks School of Public Health. “The effects of this review deepened our clinical wisdom of COVID-19 and provided valuable data that influenced complex decision-making at the state level.
The researchers decided that 1.7% of the participants tested positive for the new coronavirus and another 1.1% tested positive for antibodies, giving an estimated overall prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the 2.8% population. It is estimated that 187,802 Hoosiers were inflamed with COVID-19 at the time of the study, approximately 10 times more than the instances shown in the state.
Participants who reported living with positive results for COVID-19 had a prevalence rate of 33.6%.
“The percentage of participants who tested positive was 15 times higher among participants living with someone who had been diagnosed with COVID-19,” Menachemi said. “Along with low prevalence throughout the state, we believe that social estrangement efforts have helped minimize the spread of COVID-19 and are a vital measure to prevent transmission.
The study team also found that 44.2% of participants who tested positive did not report symptoms in the two weeks prior to the test. Of those who tested positive, 60.3% of men reported being asymptomatic, compared to 24.5 of the women who were asymptomatic.
“The effects of the review in asymptomatic Americans are our efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Indiana,” said State Health Commissioner Kris Box, M.D., FACOG. “Hoosiers may not feel unhealthy, but they can still infect someone else, so it’s important that each and every Hoosier takes steps to slow the spread of this virus.”
Current or past infection rates were particularly higher among Hispanic participants, at 8.32 percent, than among non-Hispanics, at 2.29 percent.
The non-random pattern had higher infection rates, adding 22.8% of participants who recently swelled; 20% of other inflamed people reported being asymptomatic. These effects recommend that non-random patterns be more appropriate for determining whether they have an effect on the virus in vulnerable communities, but not to obtain estimates of the prestige of infections.