--- title: Almost 60% of Americans Have Had COVID-19, CDC Says description: Most Americans have antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to CDC estimates. Here's what else to know. canonical: https://time.com/6170735/how-many-people-have-had-covid-19/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-04-26T18:35:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:34:56.511Z article:section: Health og:title: Almost 60% of Americans Have Had COVID-19, CDC Says og:description: And around 75% of children og:url: https://time.com/6170735/how-many-people-have-had-covid-19/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd8a0b30a94be512/698a314809208f9a8141917d/positive-covid-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Hand holding a positive COVID-19 test og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Almost 60% of Americans Have Had COVID-19, CDC Says twitter:description: And around 75% of children twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd8a0b30a94be512/698a314809208f9a8141917d/positive-covid-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Almost 60% of Americans Have Had COVID-19, CDC Says > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=52b25105-e0e3-4a9c-bc8a-c84fecf1029d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Difference Between a Covid Spike and a Surge [Watch (HLS stream): The Difference Between a Covid Spike and a Surge](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j83pb4lv.m3u8) (2:25)  _Published 2022-04-05. Most Americans have antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to CDC estimates. Here's what else to know._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Apr 26, 2022 6:35 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Apr 26, 2022 6:35 PM UTC Almost 60% of the U.S. population—and 75% of U.S. children—have evidence in their blood suggesting a past infection with the virus that causes COVID-19, according to [new research](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7117e3.htm?s%5Fcid=mm7117e3%5Fw) from scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that looks at data from September 2021 to February 2022. By that estimate, most people in the U.S.—almost 200 million—have had COVID-19 as of February. That far exceeds the 80.8 million cases officially tallied by the CDC as of April 26. “We know that the reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Kristie Clarke, co-lead for the CDC’s COVID-19 Epidemiology and Surveillance Taskforce Seroprevalence Team, during a press briefing on April 26\. Cases can go undetected if people don’t develop symptoms, don’t get tested, or use [at-home rapid tests that aren’t reported to public-health officials](https://time.com/6168809/at-home-covid-19-test-results-should-i-report/). Forthcoming CDC research estimates there may actually be three people infected for every case officially reported during the Omicron wave, Clarke added, suggesting that millions of cases were missed as the highly contagious variant spread. In the CDC’s new study, researchers used data on antibodies—proteins the body generates to fight off an infection—to better understand how many people in the U.S. previously had COVID-19\. Antibodies made to fight off SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) are distinct from those produced by vaccines, so testing for these proteins can help determine if someone was previously infected, even unknowingly. Every few weeks starting in September, researchers analyzed tens of thousands of blood samples from people across the U.S. that were submitted for clinical testing. (The report didn’t specify why most people’s tests were submitted for testing, though it notes that people whose doctors specifically ordered SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing were excluded to avoid skewing the data.) Using those findings, the CDC estimated how much of the total U.S. population had antibodies—and thus had a prior COVID-19 infection—at each point in time. Antibody prevalence shot up during the winter Omicron surge in the U.S., which peaked in mid-January at almost a million new recorded cases per day. As of December 2021, almost 34% of the U.S. population had COVID-19 antibodies, the CDC estimated. By February 2022, after Omicron had torn through much of the U.S. population, an estimated 58% of Americans had antibodies that suggested a prior infection. Roughly 75% of kids 17 and younger, who are [less likely to be vaccinated than adults](https://time.com/6110444/covid-19-vaccine-kids-parents-hesitant/), had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies by February, according to the CDC’s research. “While [those who are under the age of 5](https://time.com/6170315/omicron-covid-19-risks-kids-under-5/) are not yet eligible for vaccination, the best way to protect them is to make sure that they are surrounded by people who are taking preventive measures like staying up to date with their vaccines,” Clarke said. The antibody prevalence estimates in the report aren’t perfect, the CDC researchers say. The analyzed blood samples were all submitted for clinical testing, so people who had access and reason to seek care are probably overrepresented in the study group. It’s also impossible to tell from this method whether someone has been infected multiple times. Still, if anything, the estimates are probably too low rather than too high, the researchers note in the study. While [antibodies generated to fight off an infection do provide some future immunity to the virus](https://time.com/6140281/covid-19-immunity-boosted-infected-safety/), the CDC researchers warn that they are not a replacement for vaccination. Just as immunity from the COVID-19 vaccines wanes over time and may not offer complete protection against disease, the same is true for infection-derived immunity. “Vaccination remains the safest strategy for preventing complications from SARS-CoV-2 infection, including hospitalization among children and adults,” the agency’s researchers write in their report. ## Transcript [00:04] Spike, surge and uptick are used fairly interchangeably. [00:07] I think many people in healthcare would view a surge as [00:10] something that has the potential to overwhelm the healthcare [00:13] system or threaten the capacity of hospitals in a given area. [00:17] Whereas an uptick, or an increase, or spike in cases is usually used [00:21] a little bit more casually just to suggest that case counts are [00:24] rising. The ways that the U.S. has been predicting when a spike is [00:28] coming, one of them is just looking to other parts of the [00:31] world. Europe and particularly the U.K., has been a good predictor [00:35] for the U.S. throughout the pandemic, they started to see [00:38] Delta cases and Omicron cases rising a few weeks before we did. [00:42] So, looking at what's going on in other countries is very [00:45] valuable, as is looking at metrics like testing. If more [00:49] cases are being reported and if a higher percentage of tests are [00:52] coming back positive, those are both indications that there's [00:56] more virus spreading in the community. Scientists and [00:59] researchers all over the world are monitoring COVID, of course. [01:02] Particularly looking for new variants as the virus continues [01:07] to evolve. And a lot of those efforts are coordinated through [01:10] the World Health Organization. But also, independent labs are [01:14] scientists who are sequencing COVID samples to look for new [01:18] variants, will often sound the alarm for the rest of the [01:21] world when they start to notice either the viruses evolving or [01:24] that a certain variant is spreading more rapidly in [01:27] certain area. For example, before the Omicron surge, that [01:30] news came out of South Africa originally and that kind of let [01:33] the rest of the world know that they needed to be aware this [01:37] variant was coming. During a spike in cases, I think we can [01:41] keep doing the things that health experts have really been [01:43] recommending for the last couple years. A lot of vaccine and mask [01:47] mandates have rolled back recently but that doesn't mean [01:50] that masking and vaccination are not still effective or still [01:52] necessary in certain situations. So if case levels are rising, or [01:57] very high in your area, you might want to wear protective [02:00] masks like a N95. When you go out into indoor areas in public, [02:05] you might want to limit the time that you spend in public indoor [02:08] areas. You should stay up to date on booster shots as they're [02:11] recommended for different demographics. And you can take [02:14] advantage of that home tests to test yourself before you gather [02:17] with others to make sure that you're not unknowingly infected [02:20] with the virus. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6170735/how-many-people-have-had-covid-19/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6170735/how-many-people-have-had-covid-19/"},"headline":"Almost 60% of Americans Have Had COVID-19, CDC Says","datePublished":"2022-04-26T18:35:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:34:56.511Z","description":"Most Americans have antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to CDC estimates. 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