Second sero survey in Delhi shows 29% population has antibodies for COVID-19

In the second round of sero-prevalence survey in the national capital Delhi, antibodies against COVID-19 infection have been found in 29.1 per cent of people. Informing about the details,  Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday, that 15,000 representative samples were taken in the August 1-7 survey from 11 districts, and the next exercise will begin from September 1.

The sero-prevalence found in North East district was 29 per cent, South district 27 per cent, South East 33 per cent and New Delhi 24 per cent. Jain also added that there has been an increase of 6 per cent to 50 per cent in prevalence of antibodies among people in various districts compared to the prevalence found in the previous survey.

Sero-prevalence of antibodies found in males was 28.3 per cent, and in females 32.2 per cent in the latest survey and antibodies against COVID-19 found in age group of less than 18 was 34.7 per cent, in 18-50 years 28.5 per cent and 31.2 per cent in 50 years and above.

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Delhi's COVID tally

Delhi recorded 1,398 fresh coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the tally in the city to over 1.56 lakh, while the death toll from the disease mounted to 4,235, authorities said. Nine fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

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Sero survey in the country

The serosurvey to determine the extent of COVID exposure conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in coordination with the state governments has found interesting results. The serosurvey has detected high antibody positivity rates among the population in cities such as Mumbai and Delhi and low rates in primarily rural states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. This means a considerably lower risk of reinfection in cities due to high antibody positivity rates. On the contrary, the survey causes a reason to worry for the rural areas where the antibody positivity rates were found to be low. 

A serosurvey involves testing of blood serum of a group of individuals and this will be used to monitor trends in the prevalence of the novel coronavirus, or SARS-COV-2, infection at the district level. The serosurveys are being conducted in select districts by the ICMR to detect the number of people who developed immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies to the coronavirus disease.

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