Hup hup! One in five Dutchies now have coronavirus antibodies

Let’s all give a round of applause for…coronavirus antibodies! These sparkling immunoglobulins can now be found in more than one in five Dutch blood donors. Hoera! 🎉

Over 21% of the blood donors have these little warriors running around their bloodstream, samples from Sanquin blood bank show. That number jumps to 26% in the south of the Netherlands, which was hit hard in the first wave.

While antibodies are better than nothing when it comes to neutralizing the virus, they don’t offer infallible protection. “Unfortunately, you cannot generally say that someone with antibodies is also guaranteed to be immune,” says Sanquin’s medical microbiologist Hans Zaaijer.

READ MORE | Coronavirus in the Netherlands: all you need to know [UPDATED]

Regardless, if you want some of these babies in your blood, you only have two options: vaccination (which we all know isn’t going so well in the Netherlands), or infection — not recommended.

(It’s worth mentioning that over 50% of the United Kingdom now has antibodies but, of course, we’re not keeping track or anything.)

Up with the antibodies

These numbers have been jumping up in recent months. In January, only 13% of donors in the Netherlands had antibodies. In February, this rose to 18.6%.

READ NEXT | Weekly update: infections continue to rise and vaccination rate slows

A spokesperson says that the numbers are “strongly indicative,” but not necessarily representative of the Dutch population because minors cannot donate blood in the Netherlands.

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Feature Image: CDC/Unsplash

Samantha Dixon 🇦🇺
Samantha Dixon 🇦🇺https://gallivantations.com
Sam has over six years experience writing about life in the Netherlands and leads the content team at DutchReview. She originally came to the Netherlands to study in 2016 and now holds a BA (Hons.) in Arts, a BA (Hons) in Journalism, and (almost) a Masters in Teaching. She loves to write about settling into life in the Netherlands, her city of Utrecht, learning Dutch, and jobs in the Netherlands — and she still can’t jump on the back of a moving bike (she's learning!).

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