BMC’s Serosurvey Says Slum Colonies Carry Higher COVID Antibodies Than High-Rises

A team from the Health Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) along with doctors from Mumbai’s medical colleges conducted a serological survey of the city’s residents from samples taken via private and public laboratories. The civic body collected 6,000 samples from private and 6,000 samples from public laboratories for this serological survey.

The findings of the survey show that around 46 per cent of the samples collected from public laboratories had COVID-19 antibodies. On the other hand, only 22 per cent of the samples gathered from private laboratories contained antibodies.

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This illustrates that lower or middle-class residents living in slums have caught the virus at some point and generated the antibodies. However, officials said that this cannot be considered herd immunity yet as it requires at least 70 per cent of the population to be immune to the disease. 

COVID-19 tests at public laboratories are free of cost which means that middle-class and lower-income citizens get their tests done here. Getting a COVID-19 test at a private laboratory comes with a fee, putting it beyond the reach of many slum residents. From this data, officials derive that residents of slum colonies have higher immunity to the virus right now than those living in high-rises.

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“We conducted a survey at our level and have found out that 46 per cent of the samples collected from public labs have antibodies as compared to 22 per cent of those from private labs,” Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said while speaking to mid-day.

This shows that we are moving in the right direction and our focus has to be on buildings and high-rises. However, we have kept all the wards having a large slum population on alert too and spreading awareness as well,” he added.

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