Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the Colombo Municipality Region, Sri Lanka

  1. Chandima Jeewandara
  2. Dinuka Guruge
  3. Inoka Sepali Abyrathna
  4. Saubhagya Danasekara
  5. Banuri Gunasekera
  6. Pradeep Darshana Pushpakumara
  7. Deshan Madhusanka
  8. Deshni Jayathilaka
  9. Thushali Ranasinghe
  10. Gayasha Somathilake
  11. Shyrar Tanussiya
  12. Tibutius Tanesh Jayadas
  13. Heshan Kuruppu
  14. Nimasha Thashmi
  15. Michael Harvie
  16. Ruwan Wijayamuni
  17. Lisa Schimanski
  18. T. K. Tan
  19. Pramila Rijal
  20. Julie Xiao
  21. Graham S. Ogg
  22. Alain Townsend
  23. Gathsaurie Neelika Malavige

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Abstract

Background: As the Municipality Council area in Colombo (CMC) experienced the highest number of cases until the end of January 2021, in Sri Lanka, we carried out a serosurvey prior to initiation of the vaccination program to understand the extent of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.

Methods: SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity was determined in 2,547 individuals between the ages of 10–86 years, by the Wantai total antibody ELISA. We also compared seroprevalence using the haemagglutination test (HAT) to evaluate its usefulness in carrying out serosurveys.

Results: The overall seropositivity rate was 24.46%, while seropositivity by HAT was 18.90%. Although The SARS-CoV-2 infection detection rates by PCR were highest in the population between the ages of 20–60 years of age, there was no statistically significant difference in the seropositivity rates in different age groups. For instance, although the seropositivity rate was highest in the 10–20 age group (34.03%), the PCR positivity rate was 9.80%. Differences in the PCR positivity rates and seropositivity rates were also seen in 60–70-year-olds (8.90 vs. 30.4%) and in individuals >70 years (4.10 vs. 1.20%). The seropositivity rate of the females was 29.70% (290/976), which was significantly higher ( p < 0.002) than in males 21.2% (333/1,571).

Conclusions: A high seroprevalence rate (24.5%) was seen in all age groups in the CMC suggesting that a high level of transmission was seen during this time. The higher PCR positivity rates between the ages of 20–60 are likely to be due to increased testing carried out in the working population. Therefore, the PCR positivity rates, appear to underestimate the true extent of the outbreak and the age groups which were infected.

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  1. Version published to 10.3389/fpubh.2021.724398
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.18.21259143: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Study population: 2547 individuals between the ages of 10 to 86 years were recruited following informed written consent during January 2021 (before administration of COVID-19 vaccines).
    IRB: Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    Detection of total antibodies to SARS-CoV-2: SARS-COV-2 specific total antibody (IgM, IgG and IgA) responses were assessed using WANTAI SARS-CoV-2 Ab ELISA (Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, China).
    SARS-CoV-2: SARS-COV-2 specific total antibody (IgM, IgG
    suggested: None
    SARS-COV-2
    suggested: None
    IgA
    suggested: None

    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 found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).

    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.
    • Thank you for including a protocol registration statement.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.06.18.21259143v1 on medRxiv