India had 6.4 million Covid cases by May: ICMR's sero survey
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The findings of the first national serosurvey conducted by
the ICMR, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, indicated that
0.73 percent adults in India were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, amounting to a total
of 6.4 million infections by early May.
New Delhi :
The survey was conducted from May 11 to June 4 and covered
28,000 individuals whose blood samples were tested for IgG antibodies using
COVID Kavach ELISA kit.
Also, seropositivity was the highest in the age group of
18-45 years (43.3 per cent), followed by those between 46-60 years (39.5 per
cent) and it was the lowest among those aged above 60 (17.2 per cent).
A total of 64,68,388 adult infections were estimated in
India by the early May, the survey report said.
"The findings of our survey indicated that the overall
seroprevalence in India was low, with less than one per cent of the adult
population exposed to SARS-CoV-2 by mid-May 2020.
"The low prevalence observed in most districts
indicates that India is in early phase of the epidemic and the majority of the
Indian population is still susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection," the
survey report stressed.
According to the survey report, seroprevalence ranged
between 0.62 and 1.03 per cent across the four strata of districts.
As part of the survey, a total of 30,283 households were
visited from 700 clusters in 70 districts across the four strata. About
one-fourth (25.9 per cent) of the surveyed clusters were from urban areas. A
total of 28,000 individuals consented to participate, the report stated.
Nearly half (48.5 per cent) of the participants were aged
between 18 and 45 and 51.5 per cent (14,390) were females. In all, 18.7 per
cent of the participants had an occupation with a high risk of exposure to potentially
infected persons.
The survey noted that there could be under-detection of
COVID-19 cases in the zero stratum districts on account of low testing as well
as poor access to testing laboratories.
The present findings of seropositivity in the strata of districts with zero to low incidence of COVID-19 cases underscores the need to strengthen surveillance and augment the testing of suspected cases in these areas, the survey report said.
[PTI Inputs]
