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The world is combating an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with health-care systems, society and economies impacted in an unprecedented way It is unclear how many people have contracted the causative coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) unknowingly and are asymptomatic Therefore, reported COVID-19 cases do not reflect the true scale of outbreak Here we present the prevalence and distribution of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in a healthy adult population of the Netherlands, which is a highly affected country, using a high-performance immunoassay Our results indicate that one month into the outbreak (i) the seroprevalence in the Netherlands was 2 7% with substantial regional variation, (ii) the hardest-hit areas showed a seroprevalence of up to 9 5%, (iii) the seroprevalence was sex-independent throughout age groups (18-72 years), and (iv) antibodies were significantly more often present in younger people (18-30 years) Our study provides vital information on the extent of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in a country where social distancing is in place
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