{"doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiaf054","title":"Estimates of SARS-CoV-2 Infections and Population Immunity After the COVID-19 Pandemic in Austria: Analysis of National Wastewater Data","abstract":"<h4>Background</h4>Postpandemic surveillance data on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections may help inform future public health policies regarding severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing, vaccinations, or other COVID-19 measures. We estimate the total SARS-CoV-2 infections in Austria after the end of the pandemic from wastewater data and utilize these estimates to calculate the average national levels of SARS-CoV-2 infection protection and COVID-19 death protection.<h4>Methods</h4>We estimated the total SARS-CoV-2 infections in Austria after the end of the pandemic (5 May 2023, per World Health Organization) up to May 2024 from wastewater data using a previously published model. These estimates were used in an agent-based model (ABM) to estimate average national levels of SARS-CoV-2 infection protection and COVID-19 death protection, based on waning immunity estimates of infections and vaccination in previous literature.<h4>Results</h4>We estimate approximately 3.2 million infections between 6 May 2023 and 23 May 2024, with a total of 17.8 million infections following 12 May 2020. The ABM estimates that the national average death protection was approximately 82% higher in May 2024 than before the pandemic. This represents a relative decrease of 8% since May 2023. It also shows that 95% of people in Austria were infected with SARS-CoV-2 at least once by May 2024. National infection protection remained relatively low after the onset of Omicron.<h4>Conclusions</h4>These findings should be considered for public health decisions on SARS-CoV-2 testing practices and vaccine booster administrations.","journal":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2025,"id":1431,"datarank":0.29188652235829704,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"self_citation_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":1,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.2834,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-02-18","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":17137,"name":"Alena Chalupka","orcid":"0009-0000-3291-1456","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":17138,"name":"Lukas Richter","orcid":"0000-0001-6982-6239","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":17139,"name":"Martin Sprenger","orcid":"0000-0002-7232-6515","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14475,"name":"Wolfgang Rauch","orcid":"0000-0002-6462-2832","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14476,"name":"Hannes Schenk","orcid":"0000-0003-4112-3915","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":3316,"name":"Robert Krause","orcid":"0000-0003-1558-0397","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":17140,"name":"Peter Willeit","orcid":"0000-0002-1866-7159","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14477,"name":"Herbert Oberacher","orcid":"0000-0002-0963-8268","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":17141,"name":"Tracy  Beth Høeg","orcid":"0000-0002-2341-6573","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":148,"name":"John P. A. Ioannidis","orcid":"0000-0003-3118-6859","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":3313,"name":"Stefan Pilz","orcid":"0000-0002-7959-1311","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":17142,"name":"Lukáš Richter","orcid":"0000-0002-3304-3491","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":14474,"name":"Uwe Riedmann","orcid":"0000-0002-2541-9604","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":46,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-03-01T18:20:47.508186Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}