The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations plans on carrying out city-wide random testing for antibodies. Even though this plan is in its infancy stage, the civic body opines that such a test would enable them to understand and unlock the strategies for the city.
According to civic officials, initial survey findings showed the presence of antibodies in the three of the 24 administrative wards in the city. However, as per experts, even though a widespread survey would help the BMC understand the presence of antibodies, it should be conducted in a scientific manner.
The civic body had earlier studied 6,936 samples from three wards (R-North, M-West, and F-North), and found that 57 per cent of the residents in slums were exposed to the coronavirus. While an ICMR-headed serosurvey of 500 samples has already been completed in Mumbai, BMC conducted this serosurvey in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for 12-14 days in the first half of July.
SARS-CoV2 Sero-Prevalence Study in Mumbai; NITI Aayog–BMC-TIFR Study - First Round Report. pic.twitter.com/687nUTl3Py
— माझी Mumbai, आपली BMC (@mybmc) July 28, 2020
The BMC had also found that the prevalence of antibodies among women was higher than men. With all these findings, BMC has estimated that the infection fatality rate is likely to be as low as 0.05-0.10 per cent, as compared to the case fatality rate of 5-6 per cent.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra has reported 9,601 fresh cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of confirmed cases to 4,31,719, as per the state health department.
On the other hand, in Mumbai, 1,047 people were diagnosed with the coronavirus on Saturday, which took the aggregate to 1,15,331. According to the state health bulletin, Mumbai has 20,731 active cases while 6,398 patients have succumbed to the disease. For weeks now, Mumbai has reported less than 2,000 cases a day while the number of tests has remained fairly progressive which is a sign that the outbreak is easing.
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