Green zones largely unaffected, reveal initial findings of survey

NEWDELHI: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday issued a clarification saying reports that 15-30% population of many containment zones across the country have been exposed to the coronavirus disease , based on its sero (blood) surveys were “speculative” and that “the results were yet to be finalized”.

Government officials familiar with some of the initial findings of the survey said on condition of anonymity that the results show the so-called green zones, where there haven’t been too many cases, to be largely unaffected.

“You cannot reach an average percentage when all samples are not analysed in a survey. Samples from states such as West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir are yet to be tested. However, whatever has been seen so far is not alarming; it would have been a cause for concern if there were antibodies seen in a significant number of persons residing in areas where there were no cases or very low prevalence of Covid. Fortunately, no such trend has so far been observed,” one of the government officials added.

He did not deny the reports of 15-30% exposure in containment zones (which basically means the tests showed that 15-30% of the people in these zones had antibodies to the coronavirus disease) but added that the final picture would emerge only after “ICMR tests and analyses all samples.”

That’s still happening said the ICMR spokesperson.

“Experts in our Chennai lab are still analysing the data, and the results have not been finalized yet. It’s too early to predict a nation-wide trend conclusively. We go by evidence and not speculation,” said Dr Rajnikant Srivastava, spokesperson, ICMR.

For the survey, 24,000 blood samples were collected from 69 districts in 21 states last month.

Additionally, about 5,000 samples were specifically picked from 10 cities with a large number of coronavirus cases: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thane, Pune, Indore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Aurangabad.