Nearly 180 million people in India may already have antibodies against the novel coronavirus.
An Indian lab has made its data on antibody tests public, which it conducted over 20 days across the country, reported the Indiatimes.com.
Many people may have recovered from Covid-19 without showing major symptoms, at least in self-selected samples, the report said.
The data was shared by Arokiaswamy Velumani, founder and managing director of laboratory chain Thyrocare.
#AntibodyTesting after 53,000 tests. Data Pincode wise, of >200 cases reported.15% positive for Abs,means 18 crs already silently, immunised in India (approx 10,000 per death). Too good to believe. Hope, kits do not have high false positives. @ICMRDELHI @MoHFW_INDIA #KeepMasked pic.twitter.com/p1oWt8Pkh1
— Antibody Velumani. (@velumania) July 17, 2020
He posted the data on Twitter which showed that nearly 15% of those tested had antibodies against Sars-Cov2, which causes Covid-19.
The tweet read: “90% Yet not #Covid exposed. 9% Exposed. No Symptoms. High immunity. Not aware. Cured. 0.9% Symptoms.Average immunity. Not tested. Not aware. Cured. 0.09% Very Sick. Low immunity. Tested.Admitted. Cured. 0.01%. No immunity. Departing.”
Velumani also shared the data after 53,000 people had undergone tests. The data showed that about 180m Indians already have immunity against the virus.
My #Guesstimate after 60,000 AB testing:
— Antibody Velumani. (@velumania) July 19, 2020
15% globally have had COVID exposure and remain immunized.
In India only 1/10,000 exposed die, high immunity.
In western rich countries 1/500 exposed die, poor immunity.
Data says after March 2021, vaccine will have less value. https://t.co/PuYu6zK5F7
According to the report, the high number of positive antibody tests also suggested that people may have contracted the virus without knowing the actual source of it, which could be a sign of community transmission.
"Many say it is too small a data [set] to conclude [anything] . Also, everyone has their own view of looking at data. In our samples, we observed 15% positive cases," Dr Velumani told Times Now.
The PIN code with highest positivity is Bhiwandi in Thane - 44% - followed by Peenya Dasarahalli area in Bengaluru - 44%. The next on the list is Anand Vihar in New Delhi with 37.7%, and Hyderabad Jubilee area with 37.3%, the data showed.
Most organized, latest and fastest nationwide #AntibodyExitPoll survey in the history of India. Covers >60000 samples from >600 pin codes show 15% are Antibody +ve. May vary +or - 3%. But still pessimistic is an option though. #IndiaIsBlessed#KeepMasking. https://t.co/rJ7ZWaYjtX
— Antibody Velumani. (@velumania) July 20, 2020
There may have been cases of contact transmission where people have not realized they are infected, or it may indicate that community transmission is occurring in parts of India, the report continued.
Apart from Thyrocare, the presence of antibodies was also recorded by Delhi's Sero-Survey Results.
Over 60,000 samples across more than 600 pin codes in India have so far been tested by Thyrocare.