The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday asserted that the country is definitely not in COVID-19 community transmission phase, and released the results of the first sero-survey on the pandemic spread that stated the urban slum population was most vulnerable to the spread, followed by urban settlement.
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“The ICMR has calculated that compared to rural areas, the risk of spread was 1.09 times higher in urban areas and 1.89 times higher in urban slums. The infection fatality rate is very low at 0.08%,’’ ICMR Director General Dr. Balram Bhargava said at a press meet.
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The sero-surveillance study, conducted in 83 districts covering 28,595 households and 26,400 individuals by the ICMR along with other agencies in May, also revealss that 0.73% of the population surveyed showed evidence of past exposure to SARS-CoV-2.
India on Thursday overtook the United Kingdom to become the country with the fourth highest incidence of COVID-19. With a spike of 11,000 new cases, the tally rose to 2,97,928, which includes, 1,42,715 active cases. The death toll rose to 8,497, a jump of 392 from the previous day. According to the country-wise tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University, the total cases in the U.K. stood at 2,92,854.
Dr. Bhargava said, “This only means that a large portion of the population must continue following COVID appropriate behaviour suggested by the g