18 Crore Indians May Have Already Developed Immunity Against Covid-19: Thyrocare Founder A.Velumani

Data shared by Dr. A.Velumani, managing director of Thyrocare. suggests that COVID-19 infections in India could be more widespread than previously assumed, but is not lethal as feared.

Based on a sample of 60,000 antibody tests conducted across 600 pin codes across the country over 20 days, Dr. Velumani estimated that nearly 15 percent of the population in the country may have developed antibodies against SARS-Cov2, which causes COVID-19.

Dr. Velumani tweeted on July 17 that as per his estimates about 18 crore people would have already been silently immunised in India.

Since last month, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has permitted the use of antibody tests by private labs. An antibody test is used as a disease surveillance tool for authorities to get an idea of the extent of the virus’ spread in a geographical area. It is not meant to check whether a person was infected.

Dr. Velumani also provided the pincode break up of positivity rate. Of the 600 Pincodes he shared the aggregate numbers, least 250 pincodes had more that 50 reported cases of Covid-19. Their pincode wise data

According to the data shared by Dr. Velumani, the pin code with highest positivity is Bhiwandi, in Thane, at 44%.

Dr. Velumani also shared positivity rates based on antibody testing in select localities in Bengaluru and Delhi.

According to guesstimates by Dr. Velumani, only one in 10000 Indians are likely to die out of Covid-19 due to prevalence of high immunity while in the west the fatality rate could be as high as one in 500.