OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — The results of a recent CDC antibody survey suggests that the number of people with the coronavirus is at least 10 times higher than the number of confirmed cases.

Florida is one of the coronavirus hot spots targeted by the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest seroprevalence survey, which looked at the number of people who have antibodies in several hot spots around the U.S., one of which is South Florida.

Dr. Sajid Chaudhary, an infectious disease specialist in Kissimmee, Florida said the study shows that the virus is spreading fast in a short span of time.

“Central Florida is a second hot spot, you can say, after South Florida, so our numbers are not at that stage, but still our numbers are significantly high,” he said.

Chaudhary said the number of COVID-19 patients he sees keeps rising and is up to 90 a day in Osceola County. 

“This is a new disease,” he said. “We all are learning about this disease as we are managing dealing with this disease.”

Learning how prevalent the infection is can show health experts the high-risk areas and indicate where to start using a vaccine.

In the short term, people must take precautions such as wearing face masks, staying six feet apart, and using hand sanitizer, Chaudhary said.

“The hospitals are choked already, so I don’t know how long we can continue to work like this, in this condition, nonstop,” he said.

The results should not be interpreted to mean people who have antibodies are immune or protected from getting infected again, researchers said.

The other hot spots studied around the U.S. included Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Utah, and western Washington state. Researchers pointed out that the people tested for the study may not be a totally accurate representation of the community.