Chennai: Indicating many people in Mumbai would already be affected by Covid-19 than the official tally suggests, a sero-surveillance study done in the capital city of Maharashtra has revealed that 57 per cent of slum population and 16 per cent of non-slum residents in three civic wards had developed antibodies.
The study started on 3 June and 6,936 samples out of an estimated 8,870 were collected from slum and non-slum population of three civic wards – R-North, M-West and F-North – in the first half of July. It showed high proportion of asymptomatic Covid-19 infection in the city.
According to the study, 57 per cent of slum population and 16 per cent of non-slum residents in these civic wards had developed antibodies. In a statement, the BMC said, “these results will be valuable to learn more about herd immunity.”
It further said that the civic body is going to conduct another survey that will provide information about infection spread and throw light on herd immunity as well.
The Serological Surveillance for SARS-CoV2 infection was jointly commissioned by NITI Aayog, the BMC and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
A serological survey involves testing of blood serum of individuals to check for the prevalence of antibodies against an infection.