NEW DELHI, June 11 - India is definitely not in the community transmission stage of COVID-19 spread, the government asserted on Thursday, even as cases and deaths continued to mount with the country recording the highest single-day spike of 9,996 new infections and 357 fatalities.
India�s first sero-survey on COVID-19 spread has found that lockdown and containment measures were successful in preventing a rapid rise in infections, but a large proportion of the population still remains susceptible, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Balram Bhargava said at a media briefing. The sero-survey has two parts � estimating the fraction of population that has been infected with SARS-CoV-2 in general population and estimating the fraction of population that has been infected with the coronavirus in containment zones of hotspot cities, Bhargava said.
The first part has been completed and the second is ongoing, he said, adding that the survey was conducted in May by the ICMR in collaboration with state health departments, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Bhargava said the study involves surveying a total of 83 districts with 26,400 people enrolling for it and 28,595 households visited. The districts were selected based on the incidence of reported COVID-19 cases as on April 25.
The slides that were shared with the media stated that data from 65 districts has been compiled till now.
The sero-survey has found that 0.73 per cent of the population in the districts surveyed had evidence of past exposure to SARS-CoV-2, Bhargava said. �Lockdown and containment (measures) have been successful in keeping it low and preventing rapid spread,� he said, citing the survey. � PTI
