SARS CoV-2 sero-prevalence amongst cohort of Health Care Workers (HCW) in Yavatmal

Abstract

World is currently engulfed by the catastrophic pandemic of SARS CoV-2.The virus-driven protective response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains cryptic with respect to the role of protective and specific antibodies in circulation. Such protective antibody response is vital, particularly in Health Care Workers (HCW), as they are the cardinal barrier and driver of the ever evolving pandemic. Hence, we performed Seroprevalence study to retrospectively identify the rate of asymptomatic infections in HCW not caring for COVID-19 patients. Peripheral blood serum was collected from five different tertiary care hospitals in Yavatmal hospital employees with no apparent COVID-19 symptoms and called the cohort as COMAPS-Y (Cohort of Medical And Paramedical Staff- Yavatmal). Spike (S) specific IgG were analyzed in the peripheral blood samples. We observed that 34% of the study candidates were found to harbor IgG antibodies against COVID-19 with no significant bias to a particular gender. We believe determination of asymptomatic but immune HCW (seropositive) can be vital for understanding the dynamics of nosocomial transmission and be pivotal in determining the necessary step for protection of HCW in the future.