Delhi’s latest sero survey shows that approximately 56 per cent of Delhi individuals have developed antibodies against Covid-19, State Health Minister Satyendra Jain said on Tuesday.
“Sero Survey shows about 56 per cent of people have developed antibodies. We should not get into discussions over herd immunity,” Jain said.
“At 62.18 per cent, Southwest Delhi district reported maximum seroprevalence. North Delhi, at 49.09 per cent saw the lowest,” he added.
He further urged national capital residents to continue to follow Covid-19 precautionary guidelines, including routinely wearing masks and sanitising hands.
The findings of the national capital’s fifth round of seroprevalence survey showed that the population of Delhi may be moving towards achieving herd immunity against coronavirus infection.
Samples of over 25,000 individuals from different districts around the city were gathered for the survey, which ended a few days ago.
The population of Delhi is over 2 crore, spread across 11 districts.
Experts say that herd immunity is said to have been established in a population segment if 50 per cent-60 per cent of those in a seroprevalence sample are found to have the presence of antibodies.
What is herd immunity?
Herd immunity means that many of them become immune to it after being infected by the virus in any group of people in a population, due to the antibodies produced in response to it. And, thus, such individuals become a protective layer between the infected person and unaffected individuals, thereby breaking the viral transmission chain.
The first seroprevalence, conducted by the Government of Delhi in collaboration with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) from 27 June to 10 July, using 21,387 samples and found that about 23 per cent of the people surveyed were exposed to the novel coronavirus.
The exercise in August showed 29.1% of people had antibodies. Also, 79 of 257 people who had tested Covid-19 positive and then recovered, and were part of the seroprevalence survey done in the first week of August, however, did not have the antibodies against the virus, according to a report released later.
In the survey in September and October, the figures stood at 25.1% and 25.5% in October.