Health: More than half of Americans have had Covid infections, US study shows – Gulf Digital News

Health: More than half of Americans have had Covid infections, US study shows – Gulf Digital News

Following the record surge in Covid-19 cases during the Omicron-driven wave, some 58 per cent of the US population overall and more than 75 per cent of younger children have been infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to a US nationwide blood survey released on Tuesday.

The study issued by the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention marks the first time in which more than half of the US population has been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus at least once, and offers a detailed view of the impact of the Omicron surge in the United States.

Before Omicron arrived in December of 2021, a third of the US population had evidence of a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Omicron drove up infections in every age group, according to the new data, but children and adolescents, many of whom remain unvaccinated, had the highest rates of infection, while people 65 and older - a heavily vaccinated population - had the lowest.

During the December to February period - when Omicron cases were raging in the United States - 75.2 per cent of children aged 11 and younger had infection-related antibodies in their blood, up from 44.2 per cent in the