Holding a press briefing on Tuesday, 28 September, Union Health Ministry said that the Indian Council of Medical Research’s second sero survey report reveals that a considerable part of the population is still vulnerable to COVID-19.
Noting that the number of recovered cases in India has crossed 51 lakhs, which is the highest in the world, the Health Ministry said that more than 7,30,00,000 tests had been conducted in India and that out of this, 77.8 lakh tests had been carried out in the last week itself.
Further, the number of COVID-19 tests per million population has crossed 50,000 in India and a total of 2.97 crore tests have been conducted in the month of September alone.
The ministry also noted that the count of COVID-19 deaths per million population in India is amongst the lowest in the world.
What Did ICMR’s Sero-Survey Find?
Talking about the findings of the ICMR’s second sero-survey, Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR said that as per the report, one in 15 individuals aged more than 10 years were estimated to be exposed to COVID-19 by August 2020.
He added that since the survey had found that a large portion of the population was still susceptible to the virus, prevention fatigue needed to be avoided and a ‘5T strategy’ (Test, Track, Trace, Treat & Technology) is required to be adhered to.
The survey also found that urban slum and urban non-slum areas had higher SARS-CoV2 infection prevalence than that of rural areas. The data showed that sero-prevalence among people in urban slums was 15.6 percent, while it was 8.2 percent for those in non-slum areas of urban centres and 4.4 percent in rural areas.
The ICMR sero-survey also found that 7.1 percent of the adult population showed evidence of past exposure to COVID-19. Meanwhile, of the total of 29,082 people surveyed from 17 August to 22 September, 6.6 percent showed evidence of past exposure to SARS-COV-2.
The results also show a lower infection to case ratio in August as compared to May which the ministry said reflects substantial increase in testing and detection.
The officials at the briefing reiterated the continued importance of social distancing, wearing of masks especially during the approaching festive season, cough etiquette as well as hand-washing hygiene in order to curb the spread of COVID-19.
They also stressed that in light of the upcoming festivities, winter season and mass gatherings, inventive containment strategies need to be implemented by the states.
The second sero-survey was conducted across the 700 villages and (urban) wards from 70 districts in 21 states where the first survey was carried out.
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