Serosurveillance

Serosurveillance of COVID‐19 in Ecuadorian blood donors

Through anonymous screening of samples from Ecuadorian Red Cross Blood Bank donations for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, we conducted serological surveillance (“serosurveillance”) over the course of the initial stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ecuador to try to measure the rate of “hidden” COVID-19 cases that may have occurred in the population over time. In resource-limited settings like Ecuador, diagnostic testing capacity has been extremely strained and tens of thousands cases are potentially missed in official case numbers.