NEW DELHI: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday announced that the national capital had attained 97 per cent seropositivity. Experts claim that people have been exposed to the virus and immunization has helped to achieve such high figures.
“This is a combined effect. But this shouldn’t be taken as that it’s endemic. 97 per cent is out of 28,000 samples collected. This is a representative figure of Delhi. Without knowing on what grounds the samples are collected, it can’t be said how well the city has gained sero positivity,” said Dr Lalit Kant, former Scientist and Head (Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Division), ICMR.
The sero survey was conducted across all the eleven districts with a sample count of 28,000 having 100 from all the 280 wards in the national capital. “This was the biggest sero survey conducted in Delhi,” Jain noted.
Jain added that all the districts had recorded sero positivity above 95 per cent. “Among genders, it is women who have been found with more positivity compared to men. Sero-prevalence was higher in females (90.1%) as compared to males with only (88.2%) positivity,” added the minister.
This sero-survey showed that the population with a past history of symptomatic covid-19 infection irrespective of severity had significantly higher odds of seropositivity compared to those without such history, according to the state health ministry.
The survey results also found that around 88 per cent of the population aged below 18 years has been found with sero positivity. The survey was also conducted differentiating those who are vaccinated and unvaccinated, said the health minister, adding that the difference was of three or four per cent.
“The population of those who had a history of Covid-19 vaccination with even one dose of a Covid-19 Vaccine, nearly 95% were sero-positive compared to 82% in both i.e minors who were ineligible for vaccination and also the unvaccinated adults at the time of the survey,” Jain added. “Also, antibodies decline after a certain period of time and once it does, the population again becomes susceptible to infection,” added Dr Kant.
Covid: 42 new cases, zero deaths in Delhi
NEW DELHI: Delhi recorded 42 new COVID-19 cases and zero death on Thursday, while the positivity rate was 0.07 per cent, according to data shared by the Delhi health department. Delhi has recorded only four Covid-related deaths in October so far. Last month, five people had succumbed to the infection. Forty-five patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, according to the bulletin.