More than half of the national capital has had been in contact with coronavirus and hence developed antibodies against the virus say the government quoting the 5th serological survey’s reports.
According to this, one in every 2 Delhites has been exposed to covid-19 and data indicates that the city is not very far from gaining herd immunity for all its 2 crore residents.
Herd immunity comes into the picture when most of the people in an area develop immunity against the infection, allowing the disease to slow down its spread. However, people should not take this advantage of this and stop following the norms, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said.
“In the fifth sero survey done in the national capital of Delhi, antibodies have been detected in 56.13 percent of the population. This was the largest survey in any state involving around 28,000 samples conducted from January 15 to 23,” Mr. Jain said.
The northern district of Delhi reported the lowest seroprevalence (total number of residents who developed antibodies)- 49%. Meanwhile, the southeastern district of the city recorded the highest 62.18%.
“The last survey found 25-26 per cent seroprevalence. This means Delhi is inching towards herd immunity. Cases are also declining at less than 200 per day and low positivity rates. But I would appeal not to let your guard down. Keep your masks on,” the minister said.
India has registered its lowest single-day increase of cases in the past 24 hours– 8,635 new infections- beating the record of the last 8 months, according to the data government provided today morning.
Since its first reported case in January, the nation did not have many cases till the end of April 2020. However, May witnessed a sudden surge in infections as the peak was registered in mid-September where there were almost 1 lakh cases every day. Nevertheless, there has been a significant dip in cases since the peak.
Currently, India houses close to 1.6 lakh active patients of coronavirus. This is the lowest figure since 2020’s June.
Though it had one of the lowest death rates globally, the country remained the top second in the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world with over 1.07 crore cases and 1.54 lakh deaths.
Despite the official data suggesting that India falls just after the United States in terms of the number of infections, experts believe the actual number is much higher, which has in a way corresponded to create herd immunity amongst many people through natural infection.
India aims to inoculate 30 crores of its citizens by August 2021 as it has begun its path towards the goal on January 16th with the nationwide vaccination drive and has till now administered the vaccine to 39 lakh healthcare workers.
