HOUSTON — The actual number of coronavirus cases is much higher than the recorded infections, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.
The CDC’s study shows the number of people infected was more than 10 times the number of recorded cases.
The estimates are based on COVID-19 antibody tests conducted around the country.
"The key messages are this is more prevalent than we thought it was, but not a reason to let our guard down," Dr. Luis Ostrosky, infectious disease expert at Memorial Hermann, said.
The new data from the CDC shows that many people who were infected didn't know it and were spreading the virus. Now, we're seeing the results of this undetected spread.
"I'm firmly a believer that we have a higher level of COVID," Houston City Council Member Dr. Letitia Plummer said.
Dr. Plummer is a coronavirus survivor. She’s healthy now and attending city council meetings again.
She thinks she contracted COVID-19 at a grocery store before masks were mandatory, even though she herself was wearing one.
"I remembered there was a woman in line in front of me, she was coughing, she had no mask on,” she said.
She ended up spending 44 days at home sick.
"I would say the first seven days, I was asking, 'God, do you want me here on this earth?’ It was rough.”
She suffered body aches, sheer exhaustion and was so dehydrated, she had to spend a day in the hospital.
She's over the virus, but even now, months later, feels the effects. She said she used to walk 4 miles a day, but not now.
"I can do about 2 and a half miles in my walk and I feel that respiratory duress of taking a deep breath."
Her advice is the kind you’ll hear over and over.
She says you need to take the coronavirus seriously and wear a mask.
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