(Image source from: diagnosticcentres.in)
New data released by Thyrocare shows that around 18 crore Indian maybe already immune to the coronavirus.
The novel coronavirus has caused a chaos in the whole economic structure in the entire world. The deadly virus which first originated in China’s Wuhan city has now spread across the world. It has infected more than 15 million people around the one. United States, Brazil and India are the worst affected countries around the world. India has more than 1.2 million infections and every day the rise in cases is hitting a new record. The highest spike in coronavirus cases was on 20th July with more than 40,000 infections being recorded. The high cases are causing a panic in Indians everywhere.
Between all the data, there comes hope that some of the Indians may be already immune to the virus. This data come after some tweets posted by the CEO of Thyrocare Laboratories. Thyrocare conducted a few antibody tests across India, which gives us this result.
What exactly are antibody tests?
Antibodies are a few proteins which are already present in the human body. These proteins are produced by the immune system by the humans. These proteins are secreted by B lymphocytes cells and are present I body to fight dangerous and deadly viruses like the novel coronavirus. These proteins are generated in the human body in response to when a new infection to fight it, they remain in the blood to prevent any form of re-invention which therefore gives immunity to the body to fight it.
Thyrocare which is a private chain of laboratory took the required approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research or the ICMR to conduct 60,000 antibody tests across the nation. These tests were conducted across 600 pin codes in India.
The tests that were conducted on 60 thousand people by Thyrocare have now released the data study of more than 53,000 samples. In the 53,000 about 15% of them showed that they have already developed antibodies in the immune system and don’t get to know if they are infected by the coronavirus because they show no major symptoms.
The test data was revealed by Dr. Arokiaswamy Velumani n a series on tweets on his twitter handle. He is the founder and managing Directorof Thyrocare. According to his finding on 60 thousand people, 15% of India could already be immune to the virus as they have developed antibodies. 15% of India accounts to nearly 18 crores of population. This 18 crore population could definitely have silent antibodies protection from the coronavirus.
In the thread of tweets he revealed that 90% of India is not yet exposed to Covid-19. 9% is exposed which have no symptoms and also high immunity and these 9% population are not even aware of the infection in the body and are already cured.
He also mentioned that less than 1% that is 0.9% of the population has mild symptoms, but also has average immunity. This group of people is also not aware of the infection and yet is still cured.
Only 0.09% is very sick who have very low immunity. This group are also tested and also cured after medical treatment and diagnosis. Only 0.1% who has no immunity at all is serious and is departing from the world.
Dr. Velumani also mentioned that the test result could be approximately plus or minus 3%. It could be either 12% or 18%. Let’s hope it is 18%.
He stated that I am too good to believe, but there is hope. The tests was conducted for 20 days in 600 pin codes across the nation and the highest antibody positivity came from metro cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad. The highest antibody positivity was seen from an area in Thane called Bhiwandi which has 47.1% positivity. Next comes Peenya Dasasrahalli in Bengaluru with 44.1% positivity. New Delhi’s, Anand Vihar had 37.7% positivity followed by Jubilee hills area in Hyderabad which has 37.3% positivity and then Dahisar which is Thane with 36.7% and lastly Ghatkopkar west in Mumbai with 36.7% antibody positivity.
What about the lowest antibody positivity? Alibag in Mumbai, Vidyanagar in Bellary, Ambethan in Pune, Baghthala in Rewari and Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai had the lowest antibody positivity in the county with less than 3%.
If these tests are reliable and can go to further testing, this will be efficient from the front line workers like health workers or police officials who are risking their lives to fight Covid-19.
These tests can allow us to identify people and workers like doctors and nurses who are more immune to Covid-19 and who can work safely while treating patients rather than keeping doctors and officials with low immunity in the front line to treat such patients.
By Deepika Agarwal
