Less than 10 per cent of people in the US have antibodies to the coronavirus, suggesting that the nation is even further from herd immunity than was previously estimated, according to a study published on Friday in The Lancet.

The study looked at blood samples from 28,500 patients on dialysis in 46 states.

The results roughly matched those of an analysis to be released next week by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that about 10 per cent of blood samples from sites across the country contained antibodies to the virus.

In the New York metropolitan area, including New Jersey, antibody levels were higher than 25 per cent of samples tested during the study on dialysis patients. In the western US, they were below 5 per cent. Overall, the researchers estimated the prevalence to be about 9.3 per cent.