© 2025 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Majority Of St. Louis County Residents Still Susceptible To COVID-19

Only a small fraction of St. Louis County residents have antibodies to the coronavirus, according to a recent survey launched by the Institute of Public Health at Washington University.

“Even though the region did take a pretty severe hit in March and April, we still have a community and population that is very susceptible to COVID,” said Dr. Elvin Geng, an infectious disease professor at the Washington University School of Medicine, on Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air.

“The fact that the vast majority of people in the region are susceptible means that we could cross that threshold above the capacity of the health system pretty easily,” he said.

More than 1,300 adults in St. Louis County were tested for COVID-19 and its antibodies from August to October for the survey. The results show that one out of 100 people had an active case of COVID-19 during that time and that five out of 100 had antibodies to the coronavirus, which suggests they had been infected at one point.

The study also found that Black county residents were more than twice as likely to have had COVID-19 when compared to white residents.

St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Emily Woodbury joined the St. Louis on the Air team in July 2019. Prior to that, she worked at Iowa Public Radio as a producer for two daily, statewide talk programs. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science. She got her start in news radio by working at her college radio station as a news director. Emily enjoys playing roller derby, working with dogs, and playing games – both video and tabletop.