More than half of people living in the U.S. had contracted COVID-19 as of February, including 75 percent of children, new CDC research shows.
The CDC analyzed antibody levels from blood samples collected between September 2021 and February 2022 as part of the agency's national commercial laboratory seroprevalence study.
Overall, antibody presence jumped from 33.5 percent in December 2021 to 57.7 percent in February, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.
About 75 percent of children and adolescents had antibodies as of February, about one-third of whom developed antibodies after omicron gained a foothold in December.
The CDC noted that convenience sampling might limit the research's generalizability. The figures may also be an underestimate, as COVID-19 infections after vaccination might result in lower antibody levels, and antibody testing cannot discern between new infections and reinfections.
View the full report here.