Monitoring Temporal Changes in SARS-CoV-2 Spike Antibody Levels and Variant-Specific Risk for Infection, Dominican Republic, March 2021–August 2022

Abstract

To assess changes in SARS-CoV-2 spike binding antibody prevalence in the Dominican Republic and implications for immunologic protection against variants of concern, we prospectively enrolled 2,300 patients with undifferentiated febrile illnesses in a study during March 2021–August 2022. We tested serum samples for spike antibodies and tested nasopharyngeal samples for acute SARS-CoV-2 infection using a reverse transcription PCR nucleic acid amplification test. Geometric mean spike antibody titers increased from 6.6 (95% CI 5.1–8.7) binding antibody units (BAU)/mL during March–June 2021 to 1,332 (95% CI 1,055–1,682) BAU/mL during May–August 2022. Multivariable binomial odds ratios for acute infection were 0.55 (95% CI 0.40–0.74), 0.38 (95% CI 0.27–0.55), and 0.27 (95% CI 0.18–0.40) for the second, third, and fourth versus the first anti-spike quartile; findings were similar by viral strain. Combining serologic and virologic screening might enable monitoring of discrete population immunologic markers and their implications for emergent variant transmission.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• coronavirus disease
• SARS-CoV-2
• severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
• viruses
• respiratory infections