The survey was conducted from May 11 to June 4 and covered 28,000 people whose blood samples were tested for IgG antibodies using the CovidKavach ELISA kit.
In addition, seropositivity was the highest in the age group 18 to 45 years (43.3%), followed by those from 46 to 60 years (39.5%) and was the lowest among those over 60 years (17.2%).
A total of 64,68,388 adult infections were estimated in India as of early May, according to the survey report.
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“Our survey findings indicated that the overall seroprevalence in India was low, with less than one percent of the adult population exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in mid-May 2020.
“The low prevalence observed in most districts indicates that India is in the initial phase of the epidemic and the majority of the Indian population is still susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2,” the survey report stressed. .
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He highlighted the need to continue implementing context-specific containment measures, including testing for all symptoms, isolating positive cases, and following up on high-risk contacts to reduce transmission and prevent health system overload.
Males, living in urban slums and an occupation with a high risk of exposure to potentially infected persons were associated with seropositivity.
According to the survey report, seroprevalence ranged between 0.62 and 1.03 percent in the four strata of districts.
Stratification of districts as zero (15 districts), low (22 districts), medium (16), and high (17) cases was performed based on the reported number of Covid-19 cases as of April 25.
Based on the overall adjusted seroprevalence of 0.73% and the reported number of Covid-19 cases, it was calculated that for every RT-PCR confirmed Covid-19 case there were 82-130 infections in India.
As part of the survey, a total of 30,283 households from 700 clusters in 70 districts of the four strata were visited. About a quarter (25.9 percent) of the clusters surveyed came from urban areas. A total of 28,000 people gave their consent to participate, according to the report.
Almost half (48.5 percent) of the participants were between the ages of 18 and 45, and 51.5 percent (14,390) were women. In total, 18.7 percent of the participants had an occupation with a high risk of exposure to potentially infected people.
The survey noted that there could be under-detection of Covid-19 cases in stratum-zero districts due to a shortage of testing and poor access to testing labs.
In four of the 15 districts in this stratum, Covid-19 testing laboratories were not available at district headquarters and samples were transported to state headquarters hospitals for diagnosis.
Current findings of seropositivity in the strata of districts with a zero to low incidence of Covid-19 cases underscore the need to strengthen surveillance and increase testing of suspected cases in these areas, according to the survey report.
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