One in 20 Puducherry people showed evidence of Covid-19 by July end: Jipmer

PUDUCHERRY: One in 20 people in Puducherry district showed evidence of coronavirus infection by the end of July 2020, according to a seroprevalence survey by Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer).
Experts from the departments of preventive and social medicine and microbiology in Jipmer undertook the community-based survey from August 11 to 16 drawing blood samples from randomly selected adults aged above 18 years from 30 different clusters in Puducherry.
They studied the presence of antibodies in the blood (serum) 14 days after exposure to the virus. Of the total 869 tested, 43 had antibody against the novel coronavirus (4.9%).
The presence of antibody was higher in urban population (5.7%) than in rural population (3.1%) and higher in women (6.3%) than in men (3.6%).
The results of the survey reflect the occurrence of exposure in people in Puducherry by July 24. The total number of confirmed cases in Puducherry by July 24 was 2,271 with a cumulative incidence of 0.19% for the population of the Union territory (12 lakh).
Thus, the proportion of people with presence of antibodies in blood was nearly 26 times more than that of the cases diagnosed by real time PCR test as on July 24, concluded the survey.
Jipmer has proposed to undertake a repeat study in the second/third week of September to assess the extent of exposure by the last week of August and further surveys at appropriate time points as the pandemic continues.