87 pc in state have developed Covid antibodies

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 24

More than 87 per cent persons in the state have developed antibodies against Covid. This revelation has been made in a survey conducted by the state government.

“A population-based sero-survey was conducted in the state during June-July, 2021 to estimate the proportion of population with antibodies against SARS-Covid among people above the age of six years. In the study a minimum of 400 individual were enrolled from each district, thus, totalling the participants to 4,822,” said an official.

However, sero-prevalence was higher among vaccinated (one dose: 95.4 per cent and two doses: 97.6 per cent) than the unvaccinated (71.5 per cent).

As per the findings, out of a total of 4,822 persons, 437 were in the 6-9 years age-group, 939 in 10-17 age-group, 2,005 in 18-44 age-group, 962 in 45-60 age-group and 479 over 60 years. There were a total of 2,218 males and 2,594 females.

He added that of 4,822 persons tested, 4,079 had antibodies against SARS-Covid with a weighted and test adjusted sero-prevalence of 87.5 per cent (95 per cent CI: 85.4 – 89.4).

The children had a lower sero-prevalence (53.6 per cent aged 6-9 years and 61.5 per cent 10-17 years) than adults (around 98 pc) and sero-prevalence was found to be almost same in both genders.

The spokesperson added that a total of 56.2 per cent of people in the sample were vaccinated with the first dose and 43.4 per cent with the second dose.

The sero-prevalance survey results are determined by factors like age, gender, vaccination status, previous history of Covid infection etc. The detailed analysis of sero-prevalance was done based on these parameters.