Alberta & BC Antibody Test Results

Today, Alberta released their results on the first round of serology (antibody) testing they did. It was reported HERE by the CBC. Serology tests detect antibodies in the blood that indicate the person has been exposed to the COVID-19 virus in the past.

The results indicated that 36000 people had been infected by COVID-19 by May 20, which is 6x the number of recorded cases at the time. If you extrapolate that data to today, you would get an infection fatality rate of 0.3% (63600 cases, 190 deaths) vs the official case fatality rate based on positive PCR test results of 1.8% (10600 cases, 190 deaths)

On July 16, CTV reported HERE on antibody test results from BC. The results were similar to Alberta if not even more stark. At that time, the results indicated that about 28000 BC residents had been infected by COVID-19 through May, which is about 9x higher than official test results. It's not surprising that Alberta was catching more cases than BC, as Alberta had the highest test rate in the country at the time. If you extrapolate those numbers to today, you would get an infection fatality rate of 0.6% (32000 cases, 194 deaths) vs the official case fatality rate based on positive PCR test results of 5.4% (3562 cases, 194 deaths).

These findings are in line with other antibody studies worldwide I have reported on, though it appears Canada is on the low side of the overall population infection rate. There are positive and negative's to that that will not be fully known until more time passes and we see how countries like Sweden and various US states fare with future outbreaks, ie: is there any lasting immunity worth pursuing? Will be very interesting to get antibody testing results back from Quebec, and of course we are all interested in knowing how many Nova Scotians may have been infected.