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32% test positive in Chelsea MA which previously reported 2% infection rate...

Nearly a third of 200 blood samples taken in Chelsea show exposure to coronavirus

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/17/business/nearly-third-200-blood-samples-taken-chelsea-show-exposure-coronavirus/?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

The 200 participants generally appeared healthy, but about half told the doctors they had had at least one symptom of COVID-19 in the past four weeks.

Public health experts already knew Chelsea had the state’s highest rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases and that the actual rate was probably higher. At least 39 residents have died from the virus, and 712 had tested positive as of Tuesday, a rate of about 1,900 cases per 100,000 residents, or almost 2 percent.

But the Mass. General researchers ? who excluded anyone who had tested positive for the virus in the standard nasal swab test ? found that 32 percent of participants have had COVID-19, and many didn’t know it.

“I think it’s both good news and bad news,” said Dr. John Iafrate, vice chairman of MGH’s pathology department and the study’s principal investigator. “The bad news is that there’s a raging epidemic in Chelsea, and many people walking on the street don’t know that they’re carrying the virus and that they may be exposing uninfected individuals in their families.”