Serosurvey shows over 21% of Indians May have had COVID-19

February 5, 2021 Hot from the Oven Valli Sarvani No comments

The latest national survey of ICMR revealed that over 21 per cent of Indians aged above 10 years have had the exposure to COVID-19. The government said this on Thursday noting that a large portion of people is still vulnerable to the coronavirus infection.

The third national serosurvey was conducted from December 7, 2020, to January 8, 2021, by the ICMR. Nearly 29,000 people participated in the survey.

The survey showed the past exposure of coronavirus infection in more than one-fifth of participants. While 21.4 per cent of survey participants aged above 18 years have the past exposure to COVID-19, the rate was 25.3 per cent in children aged 10 to 17 years. In elderly people aged above 60 years, the rate of exposure was 23.4 per cent.

The survey also showed that slum areas had major exposure. The rate was 31.7 per cent in urban slums, it was 26.2 per cent in non-slums. At the same time, the prevalence was 19.1 per cent in rural areas.

The survey was conducted in the same places where the first and second rounds of the national survey were conducted.

Among healthcare workers, the seroprevalence rate was 25.7 per cent. For this survey, blood samples of 7,171 healthcare workers were collected for the same period.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases in the country have been declining for the past few days. As per the Health Ministry, the cumulative positivity rate was 5.42 per cent while the weekly positive rate for the last week was 1.82 per cent.

While 47 districts have not reported new cases in the last three weeks, 251 districts have not registered new deaths in the said period.

The Health Ministry also said the vaccination drive is going on in the country without any problem. So far, around 50 lakh people have received the vaccine. Around 30 per cent of healthcare workers are covered in this vaccination drive.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)