Study finds up to 3 percent of Lithuanians have had coronavirus

Between 1.3 percent and 2.8 percent of people in six Lithuanian municipalities have had the coronavirus, according to an antibody study carried out by researchers at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) and Vilnius University.

The preliminary results of the study show significant territorial differences, with the percentage of positive results ranging from 1.31 in Vilnius to 2.83 in Kaunas, the Health Ministry said.

Two-thirds of those tested did not develop COVID-19 symptoms

The study involved rapid serological testing of randomly selected volunteers in the cities of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda, and the districts of Ukmerge, Taurage and Zarasai, and lasted for two months, from July 10 to September 10.

The research team emailed invitations almost 22,000 people aged between 18 years and just over 3,000 of them agreed to participate in the study.

The team are starting a detailed analysis of the data to get a better picture of the real epidemiological situation in the country, the ministry said.