Top Stories

8-9 crore Indians Covid +ve: Survey

Wednesday, 30 September 2020 | PNS | New Delhi

Nearly 8-9 crore Indian, or one in 15 individuals aged over 10 years, may have been exposed to coronavirus by the end of August, according to the findings of the second serosurvey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

In percentage terms, the total people exposed to coronavirus will be estimated at around 7 per cent, which is 10 times higher than the numbers thrown by the findings of the first serosurvey released on September 11. It shows that between the two surveys, the infection has spread wildly.

“One in 15 individuals aged over 10 years were estimated to be exposed to Covid-19 by August 2020,” ICMR chief Balram Bhargava said. “Earlier we had thought that it does not affect those below 18, but have now found there’s no difference. The prevalence is not different by age group or gender.”

The survey was conducted between August 17 and September 22. As per its findings, the prevalence of Covid-19 among individuals over 10 years was 6.6 per cent, and in adults (over 18 years of age) was 7.1 per cent.

Since India’s population is around 140 crore, the total number of people exposed to coronavirus could be around 8-9 crore when we take out the below 10 age group.

Incidentally, the findings of the first national serosurvey which became public on September 11 indicated that 0.73 per cent of adults in India were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, amounting to a total of 6.4 million Covid-19 infections by early May.

Dr Bhargava also said that the second serosurvey report showed that urban slum and urban non-slum areas had higher SARS CoV 2 infection prevalence than that of rural areas. “Risk in urban slums twice than that in non-slum areas and 4 times the risk in the rural setting,” the report stated.

“Since a large portion of the population is yet susceptible, prevention fatigue is to be avoided and 5T strategy (Test, Track, Trace, Treat & Technology) is to be adhered to,” Dr Bhargava said.

The ICMR chief said blood samples are collected from the general population and tested for Immunoglobulin G (or IgG) antibodies for the serological surveys. He said if a person is IgG positive, it means he was exposed to SARS-CoV-2 “sometime in the past”.

For the second serosurvey, blood samples were collected from 29,082 individuals, Bhargava said. The data collected included socio-demographic details, history of respiratory symptoms, written informed consent, ethics clearance, along with a blood sample.

The first survey was conducted from May 11 to June 4 and covered 28,000 individuals. Its findings revealed that seropositivity was highest in the age group of 18-45 years (43.3 per cent), followed by those between 46-60 years (39.5 per cent) and it was the lowest among those aged above 60 (17.2 per cent). A total of 64,68,388 adult infections were estimated in India by May, the survey report said.

“The findings of our survey indicate that the overall seroprevalence in India was low, with less than one per cent of the adult population exposed to SARS-CoV-2 by mid-May 2020. This low prevalence observed in most districts indicates that India is in the early phase of the epidemic and the majority of the Indian population is still susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the survey report highlighted.

Related Articles

Back to top button