India had 7.4 crore Covid cases by August last: ICMR serosurvey
Second serosurvey indicates nearly 7% of country’s population was exposed
Hyderabad: The second nationwide serosurvey conducted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) across the country has indicated that nearly 7 per cent of the country’s population aged 10 years or above were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection by August, 2020, with an estimated 74 million (7.4 crore) infections.
The ICMR countrywide sero-surveillance study, which was published in the The Lancet journal on Wednesday, was held between August 18 and September 20, 2020, and involved collecting serum samples from 29,082 individuals hailing from 15,613 households across the country including Telangana. The serosurvey involved collecting blood from individuals to analyse whether they were infected by Covid and developed antibodies.
“In conclusion, our findings indicate that nearly one in 15 individuals aged 10 years and above were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in India by Aug 18, 2020. Although the seroprevalance among adults increased approximately tenfold between May and August, 2020, a large proportion of the population remains susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. There is high seroprevalance in urban slums, as well as non-slum urban areas,” the study said.
“We estimated a cumulative 74.3 million (7.43 crore) infections in the country by Aug 18, 2020, with 26 to 32 infections for every reported Covid-19 case,” the ICMR said. This indicates that for each Covid-19 confirmed case, there were 26 to 32 Covid infections that went undetected.
Interestingly, the seroprevalance or the number of persons who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 did not differ by age, indicating exposure between the age groups. “This absence of a significant difference was despite school closures and other non-pharmaceutical infection-control interventions like washing hands, wearing masks, physical distancing during the survey period,” it said.
This suggested household-level exposure of children and adults aged older than 60 years to other household members who were more mobile, socially active, and perhaps non-adherent to the prescribed non-pharmaceutical measures, ICMR said.
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