Delhi's sixth sero survey shows more than 90% people have antibodies

More than 90 per cent of those covered under the sixth serological survey in Delhi have developed antibodies against coronavirus, according to a report submitted to the government on Wednesday.

This means that Delhi is unlikely to witness a Covid wave as destructive as the second wave in April and May until a new severe variant emerges, a government official said.

"However, we cannot say Delhi has achieved herd immunity despite such a high level of sero-prevalence," the official said.

Also, it cannot be said whether 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.

The sample collection under the sixth sero-survey started on September 24. A total of 28,000 samples were collected from all the 280 wards, including New Delhi Municipal Council and Cantonment Board wards, in the capital.

The seropositivity rate in every district is more than 85 per cent. More women were found seropositive as compared to men, sources said.

"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 partially effective against the new variant.

This is the first survey to be done after Delhi was hit by a fourth Covid wave in April and May.

The fifth round of sero survey conducted in January had shown that 56.13 per cent of the people in Delhi had developed antibodies against COVID-19.

In April and May, Delhi battled a brutal second wave of the pandemic that claimed 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.