According to a report submitted to the government on Wednesday, over 90 per cent of those covered under the sixth serological survey in Delhi have developed antibodies against coronavirus.
This report shows that the capital is unlikely to see a coronavirus wave dangerous as the second wave which took place in April and May until a new serious variant emerges, said a government official.
The official said, “However, we cannot say Delhi has achieved herd immunity despite such a high level of sero-prevalence.”
Along with that, it is also not sure whether the vaccination has a role to play in the high seropositivity rate in the capital.
“We have found Covid antibodies in more than 90 per cent of the samples collected during the sixth round of the survey,” an official source said.
On September 24 the sample collection under the sixth sero-survey began.
While a total of 28,000 samples were collected from all the 280 wards, which included New Delhi Municipal Council and Cantonment Board wards, in the capital. In every district the seropositivity rate is more than 85 per cent.
In the survey more women were found seropositive as compared to men, said the sources.
“We cannot say exactly if Delhi has achieved herd immunity because there are no studies or data to show that the virus won’t spread after a certain percentage of population is affected,” the official quoted above said.
“However, the same variant of the virus [Delta] cannot lead to a major epidemic. So, we can say there won’t be another wave of coronavirus as big as the second wave until a new severe variant emerges,” the official said.
Also, the antibodies developed will be partly effective against the new variant.
After Delhi was hit by a fourth Covid wave in April and May this is the first survey to be done. While in January when the fifth round of sero-survey was conducted showed that 56.13 per cent of the people in Delhi had developed antibodies against coronavirus.
In April and May, Delhi fought a deadly second wave of the pandemic that calimed a massive number of lives with oxygen shortage and reduced supplies of essential medicines at hospitals adding to the woes.
On April 20, Delhi had reported 28,395 cases, the highest in the city since the beginning of the pandemic.
On April 22 the case positivity rate was 36.2 per cent, the highest so far.
The highest number of 448 deaths was reported on May 3.
