Prevalence of COVID-19 in Bangladesh, April to October 2020-a cross-sectional study.
Nazneen A., Sultana R., Rahman M., Rahman M., Qadri F., Rimi NA., Hossain MK., Alam MR., Rahman M., Chakraborty N., Sumon SA., Hussain E., Hassan MZ., Khan SH., Prodhan MH., Bablu AR., Banik KC., Fahad MH., Akhtar M., Satter SM., Ahmed S., Rahman AE., Bhuiyan TR., Alamgir ASM., Arifeen SE., Shirin T., Banu S., Flora MS.
Objective: The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of symptomatic and asymptomatic laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases among the population of Bangladesh. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Dhaka City and other districts of Bangladesh between April 18 and October 12, 2020. A total of 32 districts outside Dhaka were randomly selected, and one village and one mahalla was selected from each district; 25 mahallas were selected from Dhaka City. From each village or mahalla, 120 households were enrolled through systematic random sampling. Results: A total of 44 865 individuals were interviewed from 10 907 households. The majority (70%, n = 31 488) of the individuals were <40 years of age. Almost half of the individuals (49%, n = 21 888) reported more than four members in their household. It was estimated that 12.6% (n = 160) of the households had one or more severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected individuals, among whom 0.9% (n = 404) of individuals had at least one COVID-19-like symptom, at the national level. The prevalence of COVID-19 in the general population was 6.4%. Among the SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals, 87% were asymptomatic. Conclusions: The substantial high number of asymptomatic cases all over Bangladesh suggests that community-level containment and mitigation measures are required to combat COVID-19. Future studies to understand the transmission capability could help to define mitigation and control measures.