New Delhi:
Nearly seven per cent of India’s population aged ten and above was exposed to SARS-CoV-2, amounting to an estimated 74.3 million infections by August, with the seroprevalence being highest in urban slum areas followed by urban non-slum and rural areas, the findings of ICMR’s second national serosurvey stated.
According to the findings which have appeared in the Lancet Global Health pre-print, the overall seroprevalence of below 10 per cent in India indicates that a large proportion of the population remains susceptible to novel coronavirus infection, PTI reported.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca is likely to conduct an additional global trial to assess the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine, according to the company’s chief executive officer, after current studies raised questions over its level of protection.
The new trial would be run instead of adding an arm to an ongoing US trial and would evaluate a lower dosage that performed better than a full amount in Astra’s studies. The company’s acknowledgement that the lower level was given in error fueled concerns, Bloomberg reported.
More than 1.4 million people have died since the novel coronavirus emerged in China late last year.