Covid-19: 10 key takeaways from the latest national sero-survey

The ICMR and the Union Health Ministry on Thursday made the findings of the third sero-survey public, highlighting the necessity of vaccination as a large proportion of the population was still vulnerable to the virus.

The latest serosurvey, conducted between December 17 last year and January 8, was carried out in the same 700 villages and wards in 70 districts of 21 states which were selected during the previous two sero-surveys held in May-June and August-September last year, respectively.

Here are 10 key takeaways from the latest survey:

- Overall seroprevalence is 21.5 per cent of the population, aged 10 years and above.

- India's Covid-19 cumulative positivity rate has declined to 5.42 per cent. The weekly positivity rate (last week) was recorded at 1.82 per cent.

Read: Why India's coronavirus cases have fallen so sharply

- About 21.4 per cent of the 28,589 people aged 18 years and above surveyed showed evidence of past exposure to Covid-19. While 25.3 per cent of children between 10 and 17 years from the same number of surveyed population have had the disease, the number stood at 19.9 per cent in the age group of 18-44 years and 23.4 per cent among 45-60 years. Seroprevalence was 23.4 per cent among individuals above 60 years of age.

- Urban slums (31.7 per cent) and urban non-slums (26.2 per cent) have a higher SARS-CoV-2 prevalence than that in rural areas (19.1 per cent).

- Among the surveyed male population, the sero-prevalence was 20.3 per cent, while it was 22.7 per cent among the surveyed female population.

- Out of the 7,171 healthcare workers surveyed, the prevalence of the infection has been found among 25.7 per cent. The seroprevalence was found to be 26.6 per cent among surveyed doctors, 25.4 per cent among paramedical staff, 25.3 per cent among field staff and 24.9 among administration staff.

- 49,93,427 beneficiaries have been vaccinated in the country out of which 11 states and Union Territories, including Tamil Nadu, Assam, Ladakh, Chandigarh, Meghalaya and Manipur. 30 per cent or less healthcare workers have been covered through the Covid-19 vaccination drive.

Read: Over 97% among 5 lakh respondents surveyed happy with Covid-19 vaccination arrangements, says government

- 47 districts have not reported any new case of Covid-19 and 251 districts have not registered any new deaths in the last three weeks.

- Two states -- Kerala (69,365) and Maharashtra (38,762) -- account for 70 per cent of the total active cases in the country.

- The current serosurvey shows that even now, the infection can spread to more than 75 per cent people, said Niti Aayog member V K Paul.

(With inputs from PTI)