Authorities are struggling to manage the COVID-19 pandemic across the world, as infection rates begin to drop in some areas and surge in others, like Singapore, where the outbreak had previously seemed contained. New York, the hardest-hit US state, has announced that it will begin tests aimed at estimating what percentage of the population has been infected. The state has recently experienced a decline in new cases. The tests search for coronavirus antibodies in blood, which is a sign that a person has fought off the infection.
The antibodies may be present even if that person was not sick enough to get tested, or never experienced symptoms. Therefore, the antibody testing may be able to indicate how much of the population was exposed. The state plans to test 3,000 people initially. New York accounts for almost a third of the US’s 760,000 cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, the number of confirmed cases has passed 2.4 million.
Read More: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Near 760,000 as New York Plans to Start Antibody Tests
