NEW YORK (Reuters) – A preliminary survey of New York state residents found that nearly 14% of those tested had antibodies against the novel coronavirus, suggesting that some 2.7 million may already have been infected, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday.
While noting the small sample size of 3,000 people and other limitations of the survey, Cuomo said the implied fatality rate of 0.5% of those infected was lower than some experts feared.
“If the infection rate is 13.9 percent, then it changes the theories of what the death rate is if you get infected,” Cuomo told a daily briefing.
The implied fatality rate of 0.5% was calculated by dividing the official statewide death count to date of about 15,500 by the estimated number of infected – 14% of New York’s 19 million residents, or 2.7 million people.
As of Thursday, New York had 263,460 confirmed cases and a death toll of 15,740, according the state’s official count, or nearly 6% of those who tested positive for the coronavirus.
Among other limitations, Cuomo said the official death count was surely an undercount because it only included people who had died in hospitals or nursing homes and not those who expired at home without a diagnosis of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused