Kobe Hospital Conducts Coronavirus Antibodies Test
A hospital in the western Japanese city of Kobe has found that about 3 percent of its outpatients carry coronavirus antibodies, indicating they were infected at one point.
A group of doctors, mainly from Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, collected 1,000 blood samples from patients who visited the hospital for reasons other than coronavirus symptoms between late March and early April.
33 samples, or 3.3 percent, tested positive for the antibodies.
The doctors note the implications of their findings are limited by questions about the accuracy of the tests, and the fact that the samples were taken exclusively from hospital outpatients.
But they say the percentage could, when applied to Kobe's population, indicate that about 50,000 people in the city have been infected.
The head of the hospital, Kihara Yasuki, said on Saturday that it was possible more people than expected have been infected and carry the antibodies as a result.
Professor Katsuda Yoshiaki of Kansai University of Social Welfare warns that government social distancing and stay-at-home recommendations should be kept in place because the finding shows that most people have not yet been infected.
