NEW DELHI: Over Twenty-nine per cent (29.1%) population of the national capital have already developed antibodies against coronavirus, the results of city’s second serosurvey, conducted by the Delhi government, revealed on Thursday.
The survey, initiated by the state government was conducted by Maulana Azad Medical College, for which 15,000 samples were collected from August 1-7 across all districts.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain who presented the survey results said that the report suggests that the South East District has the highest prevalence of antibodies while the lowest prevalence of antibodies was found in the South West district.
“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. Additionally, while 28.3 per cent males had antibodies present, the percentage of females with antibodies is 32.2 per cent,” he said. “It is relieving to know that nearly 29 per cent of the city’s population has recovered after being infected from the coronavirus. On the other hand, 70 per cent of people in the national capital have not yet developed antibodies, which means that we are yet to reach the stage of herd immunity. Roughly 59 lakh people have recovered and antibodies have been found in them out of a population of two crore,” the health minister stated. Three age groups were formed based on which the sero- survey was conducted.
Around 25 per cent of people were below 18 years, 50 per cent were between 18-50 years and 25 per cent were above 50 years of age. The prevalence of antibodies was found in 34.7 per cent of individuals aged below 18, 28.5 per cent in people between 18- 50 years, and 31.2 per cent among people above 50.
The serosurvey suggests that areas where the prevalence rate was lower in the first survey, are witnessing an exponential increase in the prevalence rate.
The 22 per cent prevalence rate of South East Delhi has now increased by 50 per cent. “We will compare the data of the previous survey and this month’s survey, and we will then analyse if more strategies need to be made and any approach that needs to be changed. We are not slowing down on preparations that have been made already,” Jain further added.