66 Percent of Population Surveyed Contains COVID-19 Antibodies: Reports

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the findings of the national serosurvey done on 11 states of India revealed that about two-third of the population have Coronavirus antibodies in them. The survey was conducted from 14 June to 16 July.   

As per the Union Health Ministry, the research was conducted on 70 districts of India which has children of age about 6-7 years. This national serosurvey was conducted the fourth time to assess the percentage of antibodies in several states.      

Demographics of States  

Madhya Pradesh has the highest share of antibodies recording 79 percent while Kerala has the least share of antibodies recording only 44.4 percent. The antigens found in Assam is about 50.4 percent following Kerala at second last place within the chart, while Maharashtra holds about 58 percent of antigens of COVID-19 virus in it.  

The other states like Rajasthan found 76.2 percent antibodies following Madhya Pradesh. The seroprevalence share in Bihar is 75.9 percent, 75.3 percent in Gujarat, 74.6 percent in Chhattisgarh, 73.1 percent in Uttarakhand, 71 percent in Uttar Pradesh, 70.2 percent in Andhra Pradesh, 69.8 percent in Karnataka, 69.2 percent in Tamil Nadu and about 68.1 percent in Odisha.   

Health ministry guidance  

Keeping in view the findings of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Union Health Ministry had advised the States and other Union Territories to conduct detailed research of the seroprevalence in their respective states under the strict adherence of ICMR.   

This should be conducted as soon as possible. The findings of this particular research will be going to assist the respective states to guide objective, transparent and evidence-based public health response to such hazardous virus of COVID-19. 

As reported by the Health Department this serosurvey was designed to capture the extent of the spread of COVID infection at the national level. So, the national serosurvey results will not reflect the diversification of seroprevalence between districts and even between states. 

Disha Jain

BW Reporters The author is working as an intern with BW Businessworld