India’s first serological survey - to find the presence of Covid-19 antibodies in the general population, has shown prevalence of infection among 0.73 per cent of individuals tested, with urban slums facing a much higher risk of spread, Indian Council of Medical Research has found.
While sharing the findings of part one of the survey conducted in May, ICMR chief Balram Bhargava said that the infection in containment zones was found to be high with significant variations. The second part of the survey to study the spread of the disease in the containment zones in the hotspot districts was still ongoing, he said.
ICMR chief while denying that there is community transmission said, “Even the World Health Organisation has not defined community transmission...India is such a large country and the prevalence is less than 1 per cent in small districts...it may be slightly higher in urban sector and containment areas...India is certainly not in community transmission,” Bharagava said.
However, in order to study the spread of the disease multiple sero surveys will be conducted in states and the Elisa test kit for antibody detection will be made available to states, ICMR chief said.
The first part of the sero survey was conducted in around 83 districts across 28,595 households collecting 26,400 individuals samples. The districts were divided into four categories depending on the level of spread of the disease - zero, low, medium and high incidence.
The survey showed that the infection fatality rate was 0.08 per cent. It showed that the risk was 1.09 times higher in urban areas and 1.89 times higher than rural areas in urban slums.
“That the survey has found less than 1 per cent infected is a big achievement...However, this fight will go on for months," said V K Paul, member, Niti Aayog and chairman of the empowered group 1.
Conducted in the third week of May the survey presents the situation around April end, since the Covid-19 antibodies take around two weeks to appear in the body.
Serosurvey involves collection of blood samples from a group of individuals to check them for Covid-19 antibodies. If the test is positive it shows that the person has been infected in the past.
The survey while providing scientific guidance shows the percentage of people who are more at risk of catching the infection and points at the area which require more containment effort.
The first sero survey was conducted in collaboration with the state health departments, national centre for disease control and WHO.
The total number of Covid-19 cases in India reached 2,86,579 on Thursday, registering the highest single day spike of 9,996 cases and also the largest increase in daily number of deaths with 357 fatalities taking the total toll to 8,102.
Bhargava said that India has ramped up testing capacity to conduct upto 200,000 tests per day and the total number of labs have gone up to 850.