Coronavirus: New Seroprevalence Data for a Municipality in Navarra, Spain

Around 8% of the population in 'la Cendea de Cizur', a municipality in Navarra, has antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), according to the first results of a study conducted by ISGlobal, an institution supported by “la Caixa” Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Navarra and funded by the town council.

These data differ from those provided by the national ENE-COVID study, which estimated a seroprevalence around 4.6% for the community, where almost 4,000 people live. “This could be due to the much higher number of samples in the Cendea study – 728 people sampled versus 80 in the national study,” explains Carlos Chaccour, ISGlobal researcher and principal investigator of the study. In addition, the Cendea study measured three types of antibodies (IgG, IgA and IgM) instead of only IgG as in the national study. “This provides a higher sensitivity and allows to detect more people exposed to the virus,” adds Chaccour.

“The results show that children under 10 years of age have the lowest seroprevalence, while the other age categories the average ranges between 7.5% (for those aged over 65) and 11.3% (young adolescents between 10 and 20 years of age),” says Marta Ribes, study coordinator. The average estimated seroprevalence is 7.9%.

More specific data on the social and economic repercussions of the pandemic in la Cendea will be communicated shortly and will help guide local interventions to mitigate the effects of the crisis in the community.