Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in France: results from nationwide serological surveillance

  1. Stéphane Le Vu
  2. Gabrielle Jones
  3. François Anna
  4. Thierry Rose
  5. Jean-Baptiste Richard
  6. Sibylle Bernard-Stoecklin
  7. Sophie Goyard
  8. Caroline Demeret
  9. Olivier Helynck
  10. Nicolas Escriou
  11. Marion Gransagne
  12. Stéphane Petres
  13. Corinne Robin
  14. Virgile Monnet
  15. Louise Perrin de Facci
  16. Marie-Noelle Ungeheuer
  17. Lucie Léon
  18. Yvonnick Guillois
  19. Laurent Filleul
  20. Pierre Charneau
  21. Daniel Lévy-Bruhl
  22. Sylvie van der Werf
  23. Harold Noel

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Abstract

Assessment of the cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections is critical for monitoring the course and extent of the COVID-19 epidemic. Here, we report estimated seroprevalence in the French population and the proportion of infected individuals who developed neutralising antibodies at three points throughout the first epidemic wave. Testing 11,000 residual specimens for anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and neutralising antibodies, we find nationwide seroprevalence of 0.41% (95% CI: 0.05–0.88) mid-March, 4.14% (95% CI: 3.31–4.99) mid-April and 4.93% (95% CI: 4.02–5.89) mid-May 2020. Approximately 70% of seropositive individuals have detectable neutralising antibodies. Infection fatality rate is 0.84% (95% CI: 0.70–1.03) and increases exponentially with age. These results confirm that the nationwide lockdown substantially curbed transmission and that the vast majority of the French population remained susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 in May 2020. Our study shows the progression of the first epidemic wave and provides a framework to inform the ongoing public health response as viral transmission continues globally.

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  1. Version published to 10.1038/s41467-021-23233-6
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.20.20213116: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    14 In LuLISA, the presence of all four anti-N or anti-S IgG subtypes is revealed by the means of a unique alpaca anti-human VhH (single variable heavy chain antibody domain) coupled to a luciferase, the bioluminescent activity of which is then measured.
    anti-N
    suggested: None
    anti-S IgG
    suggested: None
    anti-human VhH (single variable heavy chain
    suggested: None
    This test makes it possible to estimate the prevalence of potentially neutralising anti-S antibodies, although the effective level of protection conferred by neutralising antibodies remains unclear.
    anti-S
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    The PNT mimics the SARS-CoV-2 entry step in HEK 293T cells stably expressing the human SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor ACE2 on their surface.
    HEK 293T
    suggested: NCBI_Iran Cat# C498, RRID:CVCL_0063)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.10.20.20213116v1 on medRxiv