Corona hotspot: 85pc didn’t know they had it

Tourist town at the centre of a nightclub superspreader event unwittingly achieves herd immunity.

The tourism hotspot of Ischgl in western Tyrol. Picture: AFP

Eighty-five per cent of people ­infected with COVID-19 in one of the first European clusters — in the Austrian ski resort town of Ischgl — didn’t know they had the virus.

Blood samples from the 1800 residents of the town in the Tyrolean Alps shows that nearly half of them had had the virus, and nearly all of them unknowingly.

A bar in Ischgl is believed to have been the centre of the super-spreading event.

Scientists from Innsbruck Medical University found antibodies to the virus in 42.4 per cent of people in Ischgl.

“In Ischgl, we have the highest seroprevalence ever shown in a study,’’ said research leader ­Dorothee von Laer.

“Even if we can’t conclude this means those in Ischgl have herd immunity, a good part of the population should have protection from contracting the virus for now.’’

Professor von Laer said some of the 85 per cent of people in the study who unknowingly had the virus had dismissed mild symptoms as being a cold, while others didn’t have any symptoms at all. In people aged under 18, only 27 per cent had antibodies to the virus.

Scientists believe the virus was spreading throughout Ischgl in February before the first positive tests emerged in March, with skiers and snowboarders spreading the virus to their home countries of Iceland, Germany and Britain.

This comes as Sweden, which didn’t implement a full lockdown, instead asking the public to socially distance, has returned to normal mortality rates after 5230 died from coronavirus. State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said Sweden was no longer reporting excess mortality.

Meanwhile, 216 doctors from 33 countries have written in medical journal The Lancet, saying WikiLeaks founder Julian ­Assange is at “grave risk’’ of coronavirus and his “torture and medical neglect’’ must end.

They have warned British authorities, under the Convention Against Torture, those acting in official capacities can be held complicit and accountable not only for perpetration of torture but for their silent acquiescence and ­consent.

“The ongoing failure to properly treat Mr Assange may amount to an act of torture in which state officials, from parliament to court to prison, risk being judged complicit,’’ they said.

The Australian attended only one recent hearing, missing four hearings because of coronavirus restrictions and medical risks.

They said the grave risk to Assange “is medically elevated significantly beyond that of the general prison population’’. They said this was due both to his chronic respiratory condition and to his history of psychological torture and medical neglect, resulting in high likelihood of his immune system being severely compromised.

Assange is held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day at Belmarsh Prison in London. His extradition hearing is scheduled for later in the year.