There is a ray of hope but there is no room for complacency, ICMR DG Balram Bhargava said

The center on Tuesday said 67.6 per cent of India’s population above six years was found to have SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in ICMR’s latest national sero survey in June-July.

“A third of the population did not have SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, which means about 40 crore people still vulnerable to Covid-19 infection,” said Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava in a media briefing on Covid-19.

He further warned that States, districts and areas without antibodies run the risk of infection waves.

The ICMR DG said that the Implications of 4th Round of National Sero-Survey show that there is a ray of hope but there is no room for complacency. Non-essential travel must be discouraged and travel only if fully vaccinated, he said.

"Implications of 4th serosurvey clearly show that there is a ray of hope but there is no room for complacency. We must maintain Covid appropriate behaviour and community engagement. National level serosurvey is not a substitute of state/district level serosurveys,"ICMR DG said.

The sero-survey was conducted over 28,975 individuals (adults and children), apart from 7,252 healthcare workers in 70 districts where earlier three rounds were also conducted.

This fourth survey conducted in the last 10 days of June and the first week of July 2021 shows a three-fold rise from the third survey conducted in December 2020 and January 2021.

This increase from 21.5 per cent to 67.6 percent is attributable to vaccination that started from March 2021 as well as the second wave witnessed across the country in the months of April and May 2021.

Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, India recorded 30,093 new cases in the last 24 hours- the lowest in 125 days, as per Health Ministry’s recent data.

The last time India’s Covid-19 tally was below the 30,000-mark was on March 16 when the country saw 28,903 fresh cases.
India's Active Caseload is currently at 4,06,130, which is the lowest in 117 days. The active cases constitute 1.30% of total cases.

On another front, India has recorded 3,03,53,710 total recoveries across the country so far. The Recovery Rate increases to 97.37%. In the last 24 hours, 45,254 patients have been recovered.