In First Quantitative Serosurvey In Mumbai, 99.93% Participants Found With Covid-19 Antibodies

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In the first quantitative serosurvey conducted in March this year, COVID-19 antibodies were found in 3,097 out of the 3,099 health and frontline workers, who were examined, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

Comparatively, more antibodies were found in the blood samples of the employees, who have taken the preventive or booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines as compared to the fully vaccinated employees, the civic body said in a release.

It was the sixth regular serosurvey, but the first quantitative serosurvey that will prove useful for deciding about the future of vaccination, it said. The civic body also claimed that it was probably the first of the kind serosurvey conducted in the country.

Six months later, the second serosurvey of the same people will be conducted to count the antibody levels in their blood samples, it said. Of the 3,099 health and frontline workers, 726 employees were nurses and health workers from primary health centres in 24 wards of the BMC, 776 were Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) staffers and 779 were from the solid waste management department, among others.

The civic body claimed that in the blood samples of 99.93 per cent of health and frontline employees, the antibodies against the COVID-19 have been found. The serosurvey was conducted by collecting blood samples of the employees. Before this, four serosurveys were conducted among the adult citizens of Mumbai, besides a special survey of the children.

The civic body said that although the COVID-19 infection is fully under control, the serosurvey was conducted to find out the exact status of antibodies in the body of the employees, who worked closely in the management of the pandemic, besides studying what is the impact of vaccination and natural infection on the antibodies.

The quantitative serosurvey was jointly conducted by the BMC's BYL Nair hospital and the Public health department, according to the release, the formal consent of all the participants was taken for their participation in the survey.

The average age of the employees who participated in the serosurvey was 43 years. Of the total participants, 58.1 per cent were males and 49.9 per cent were females.

Among the participants, 99.35 per cent of employees had taken the COVID-19 vaccine. Of those, 96.9 per cent of participants had taken the Covishield vaccine and another 3.3 per cent had taken Covaxin, while 36.5 per cent had taken the booster dose.

According to the release, 15.9 per cent of the total participants had tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two years.

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