Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday released second sero survey report claiming out of the 2 crore national Capital’s population, 59 lakh people are at a low risk of Covid-19 infection however 70 per cent people are still at a risk of getting infected from the deadly virus. The Delhi Government will conduct next sero survey from September 1, 2020.
According to the Health department of Delhi Government, in August month 7.1 per cent more people have developed antibodies compare to previous which was 22 per cent.
According to the sero survey report, the highest prevalence rate is in the South East Delhi out of all 11 districts.
Addressing media, Jain said a prevalence rate of 34.7 per cent has been found in the people who are below 18 years of age, 28.5 per cent in people between 18-50 years, and 31.2 per cent in people above 50 years.
Citing the major findings of sero survey report, Jain said, antibodies have been found in around 28.3 per cent males and 32.2 per cent females.
Interestingly, Delhi which was competing with other States highly affected with corona, the latest sero survey suggested that a population of about 60 lakh in Delhi has already recovered after being infected by the virus.
Illustrating further the report, Jain highlighted that the improvement across districts can be mapped in the range of 6 per cent to 50 per cent. “While the numbers increased only slightly in the North-East District which already had a fairly high percentage in the previous survey of July, South-East Delhi has shown an improvement of about 50 per cent.”
Commenting on the findings, Jain added, “Different prevalence has been observed in different districts.”
“For instance, antibodies have been found in 29 per cent of people in North East Delhi, 27 per cent in South Delhi, 33 per cent in South East Delhi, 24 per cent in New Delhi,”
According to health officials, the difference between the first and the second sero-survey ranges between 6 per cent and 50 per cent.
“In the first survey, the prevalence rate in North East Delhi was 27.7 per cent which has now increased to 29.6 per cent, and from 22 per cent to 33 percent in South East Delhi, which means that there is an increase of 50 per cent. The overall increase rate from the previous survey is 25-26per cent.”
“This sero-survey has been done considering the overall 2 crore population of Delhi. The sample size was 15,000,” he added. Jain said, “As per the scientists, the antibodies stay in your body starting from a period of 3-4 months up to 7-8 months. Along with this, T-Cells also get developed and their life is much longer. They are called memory cells and because of them, if a person is already infected by Corona in the past, it is very non-probable that he/she will get infected again.”
Jain added there were huge variations in all the districts the last time and ranged from 18 per cent in one place to 12 per cent in another. This variation has now lowered.
“This means that we may soon be able to achieve herd immunity in the coming months because as per scientists, herd immunity is achieved between 40-60 per cent and we are already at 29 per cent,” he added.
“We will compare the data of the previous survey and this month’s survey, and we will then analyze if more strategies need to be made and any approach that needs to be changed. We are not slowing down on preparations that we have already done. In Europe or the USA, numbers have started rising again in some of the countries of Europe. Our country saw the highest rise in the cases at 69,000 cases. So, we cannot believe that corona is over in Delhi. There was a time when the cases in Delhi were increasing by 4,000 daily and the positivity ratio was 30 per cent. It is also reassuring to see that the positivity rate in Delhi has reduced to nearly 7 per cent, which is much lower than the national average. The situation in Delhi is improving,” Jain added.