Assessing Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Among US College Students after School Reopening

Objective: This study assessed the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at two timepoints to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 precautions in two colleges. Participants: The study enrolled students, faculty, and staff from Covenant and Geneva Colleges. Methods: During the fall of 2020 the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group partnered with Vibrant America to hand out self-administered finger stick antibody tests at the start of the fall semester and again two months later. Results: The study enrolled 305 participants from Covenant and 671 from Geneva College at timepoint 1 and 198 participants from Covenant and 554 from Geneva College at timepoint 2. Seroprevalence rates were 2.3% and 1.6% at timepoint 1, and 0.5% and 3.97% at timepoint 2 at Covenant and Geneva Colleges, respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that implementation of strict preventive measures may have kept the spread of COVID-19 low at these colleges during the study period. ### Competing Interest Statement Dr. Poland offers consultative advice to Johnson & Johnson/Janssen Global Services LLC, and is the chair of a Safety Evaluation Committee for novel investigational vaccine trials being conducted by Merck Research Laboratories. Dr. Poland also offers consultative advice on vaccine development to Merck & Co., Medicago, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur, Emergent Biosolutions, Dynavax, Genentech, Eli Lilly and Company, Kentucky Bioprocessing Inc, Bavarian Nordic, AstraZeneca, Exelixis, Regeneron, Janssen, Vyriad, Moderna, and Genevant Sciences, Inc. Drs. Poland and Ovsyannikova hold patents related to vaccinia and measles peptide vaccines. Drs. Kennedy, Poland, and Ovsyannikova hold a patent related to vaccinia peptide vaccines. Drs. Poland, Kennedy and Ovsyannikova hold a patent related to the impact of single nucleotide polymorphisms on measles vaccine immunity. Drs. Poland, Kennedy, and Ovsyannikova have received grant funding from ICW Ventures for preclinical studies on a peptide-based COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Kennedy has received funding from Merck Research Laboratories to study waning immunity to mumps vaccine. Dr. Kennedy also offers consultative advice on vaccine development to Merck & Co. and Sanofi Pasteur. These activities have been reviewed by the Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest Review Board and are conducted in compliance with Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest policies. This research has been reviewed by the Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest Review Board and was conducted in compliance with Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest policies. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any external funding ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics committee/IRB of Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN gave ethical approval for this work Ethics committee/IRB of Geneva College gave ethical approval for this work Ethics committee/IRB of Covenant College gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors