Kolkata: A Serological-survey (Sero-survey) carried out in five districts by the ICMR reveals that Sero positivity rate is around 60.9 per cent in those districts and the Covid antibodies have the highest prevalence among doctors and health workers taking part in the survey.
It says that in case of general population, the Sero positivity rate is around 59.1 per cent in Alipurduar, 66.7 per cent in Bankura, 54.1 per cent in Jhargram, 62.2 per cent in South 24-Parganas and in case of East Midnapore, the number stands at 53.9 per cent.
States like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar are much ahead of Bengal in terms of Sero positivity rate with 79.0 per cent, 76.2 and 75.9 percent respectively. It means that in those states many more people had developed Covid antibodies. The prevalence of Sero-positivity rate in Bengal is much higher among doctors and health workers. They have already developed Covid antibodies. The report says among doctors and health workers, the Sero positivity rate is around 88.0 per cent in Alipurduar, 79.0 per cent in Bankura, 72.7 per cent in Jhargram, 82.7 per cent in South 24-Parganas and 78.0 per cent in case of East Midnapore. According to experts compared to health professionals, the general public is more susceptible to the Covid third wave as they are far behind when it comes to the development of antibodies. Sero-survey was conducted on around 408 samples in Alipurduar, 411 samples in Bankura, 410 in Jhargram, 413 samples in South 24-Parganas and 401 in East Midnapore. However, the experts said it is not clear that people in Bengal are heading towards hard immunity and it is not evident whether around 5 per cent of those undergoing Sero survey had developed antibodies after receiving the vaccine.
In the country, the Sero positivity rate stands at 67.6 per cent. States like Kerala, Assam and Maharashtra are far behind with only 44.4, 50.3 and 58.0 per cent respectively. A Sero-survey is an antibody test conducted on a sample of the population to assess how many people have been affected.