Coronavirus COVID-19 Update for April 28, 2020

Estimation of SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality rate by real-time antibody screening of blood donors
Danish blood donors aged 17-69 years giving blood April 6 to 17 were tested for SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin M and G antibodies using a commercial lateral flow test. Antibody status was compared between areas and an estimate of the IFR was calculated. The first 9,496 blood donors were tested and a combined adjusted seroprevalence of 1.7% (CI: 0.9-2.3) was calculated. Using available data on fatalities and population numbers a combined IFR in patients younger than 70 is estimated at 82 per 100,000 (CI: 59-154) infections.

Clinical benefit of remdesivir in rhesus macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2
Therapeutic remdesivir treatment initiated early during infection has a clear clinical benefit in SARS-CoV-2-infected rhesus macaques. These data support early remdesivir treatment initiation in COVID-19 patients to prevent progression to severe pneumonia.

Human leukocyte antigen susceptibility map for SARS-CoV-2
The SARS-CoV-2 proteome is successfully sampled and presented by a diversity of HLA alleles. Authors found that HLA-B*46:01 had the fewest predicted binding peptides for SARS-CoV-2, suggesting individuals with this allele may be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, as they were previously shown to be for SARS. HLA-B*15:03 showed the greatest capacity to present highly conserved SARS-CoV-2 peptides that are shared among common human coronaviruses, suggesting it could enable cross-protective T-cell based immunity.