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In its sero-survey report, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that it had found antibodies in people even in districts that had zero registered COVID-19 cases.
Citing results of its serological survey, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) admitted on September 11 that the results had highlighted the need to test more people for COVID-19, especially in areas where the caseload remains low.
In its survey report, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, ICMR said that it had found antibodies in people even in districts that had zero to low number of registered cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“The present findings of sero-positivity in the strata of districts with zero to low incidence of COVID-19 cases underscores the need to strengthen surveillance and augment the testing of suspected cases in these areas,” ICMR said.
Over the last seven months, India has steadily increased the number of samples being tested for COVID-19. Around 11.6 lakh samples were tested on September 10, taking the total to 5.4 crore tests conducted in the country so far.
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On September 11, India recorded its highest single-day spike of over 96,500 cases. The death toll increased by over 1,200. India’s overall tally stood at 45.6 lakh cases, including more than 76,200 fatalities. However, 35.4 lakh COVID-19 patients have recovered so far and the case fatality rate stands under 2 percent.
The survey results also estimate that around 64 lakh Indians had been already infected by COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, by May. These cases had also gone undiagnosed and the patients had developed antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The survey further revealed that for every confirmed COVID-19 case in May, there were 82-130 infections that went undetected. The exercise, conducted between May 11 and June 4, had covered 28,000 individuals whose blood samples were tested for IgG antibodies using COVID Kavach ELISA kit.
To make sure no COVID-19 positive patient is missed, the Union Health Minister had on September 10 asked all states and Union Territories (UTs) to mandatorily retest all symptomatic negative cases of rapid antigen tests (RAT) through RT-PCR.
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