The Government on Thursday cautioned the people against letting their guard down noting that a large proportion of population is still vulnerable to the Covid-19 infection as it cited the latest national sero-survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Presenting the findings of the survey conducted by the country’s premier health research body between December 7 last year and January 8, ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said that 21.4 per cent of the 28,589 people, aged 18 years and above, surveyed during the period showed evidence of past exposure to the coronavirus infection.
“While 25.3 per cent of children aged 10 to 17 years from the same number of surveyed population have had the disease,” he said. The 3rd sero-survey was done from December 17, 2020 to January 8, 2021, says Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR.
Urban slums (31.7 per cent) and urban non-slums (26.2 per cent) had a higher SARS-CoV-2 prevalence than that in rural areas (19.1 per cent), Bhargava said, adding that 23.4 per cent of individuals above 60 years of age had suffered from Covid-19.
Blood samples of 7,171 healthcare workers were also collected during the same period and the seroprevalence was found to be 25.7 per cent, the ICMR director general said.
“Also, amongst healthcare workers, sero prevalence was highest overall with 25.7 per cent. Statistically it was not different between doctors, nurses, field staff and paramedics, but it was highest among doctors and nurses with 26.6 per cent as against the administrative staff which was 24.9 per cent,” he said.
The survey was conducted in the same 700 villages or wards in 70 districts in 21 States selected during the first and second rounds of the national serosurvey.
On the coronavirus situation in the country, the Union Health Ministry said India’s Covid-19 cumulative positivity rate is 5.42 per cent and declining. The weekly positivity rate (last week) was recorded at 1.82 per cent, it said.
“There are two States that have 70 per cent of the active cases - Kerala and Maharashtra. 47 districts haven’t reported any new cases in the last 3 weeks and 251 districts have not reported any Covid-related deaths in the last three weeks,” said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.