COVID-19 pandemic in Saint Petersburg, Russia: Combining population-based serological study and surveillance data.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic in Russia has already resulted in 500,000 excess deaths, with more than 5.6 million cases registered officially by July 2021. Surveillance based on case reporting has become the core pandemic monitoring method in the country and globally.

Evaluation of the performance of SARS--CoV--2 antibody assays for a longitudinal population-based study of COVID--19 spread in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Geographical variation in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS--CoV--2) spread requires seroprevalence studies based on local tests, but robust validation is needed. We summarize an evaluation of antibody tests used in a serological study of SARS--CoV--2 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. We validated three different antibody assays: chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA) Abbott Architect SARS--CoV--2 immunoglobulin G (IgG), enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) CoronaPass total antibodies test, and ELISA SARS--CoV--2--IgG--EIA--BEST.