Over 6% of NL residents have Covid-19 antibodies, blood bank says

More and more Netherlands residents have antibodies against the coronavirus in their blood, according to blood bank Sanquin, which has been testing blood donors' blood for antibodies since early in the crisis. Around 6.2 percent of Netherlands residents have antibodies against Covid-19, ANP reports.

Antibodies indicate that the person had the virus, as their immune system built up defense against it. At the start of April, 2.7 percent of Netherlands residents had Covid-19 antibodies. In May it was 5.4 percent.

"We see an outlier among younger donors [18 to 40 years old] from Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague," a Sanquin spokesperson said to ANP. "There over 1 in 10 donors has antibodies. That is in line with the relatively high number of infections among young adults."

Limburg and Noord-Brabant have relatively the most residents with Covid-19 antibodies at 8.5 percent. Those two provinces were hit hard in the first wave of the pandemic. The lowest is in the northern provinces at 3.9 percent.