April 18, 2026

Serosurvey Results No Reason To Relax

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-07-22 15:08:09

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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Experts are of the opinion that if 70 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, herd immunity will ensure that the risk of Covid-19 diminishes greatly, if not vanishes altogether. Hence, the findings of the fourth serosurvey , conducted by ICMR in June and July, that 68% of Indians have Covid antibodies, point to the fact that another kind of herd immunity is being achieved due to exposure to the virus.

Although this will bring immense relief as rising cases in Kerala, Maharashtra and the North-East, as well as the relaxation of restrictions and consequent indiscipline in following Covid norms are pointing to an imminent onset of the third wave, this does not mean that people can relax and think, like they did after the first wave, that coronavirus has gone.

But the presence of antibodies does not guarantee that there will be no infection. This is because of two reasons - the quality of the antibodies and the mutations of the virus. The virus can still infect a person if the antibodies present in his or her body are small in quantity or not strong enough. In fact, experts have said that using antibody response in coronavirus infections as a sole and durable metric of protective immunity is not right as antibody response is often a poor marker of prior coronavirus infection, particularly in mild infections. Further, when the virus mutates often, as Covid-19 is doing, it is not known how it will react to the antibodies present in the human body. There have been many cases of people getting infected a second time due to the new variants of coronavirus.

Hence, as even ICMR has warned in the report, there is no reason to relax or throw caution to the winds. ICMR has warned particularly against large congregations but it holds true for all outdoor situations. Also ICMR has said that national level serosurvey cannot be a substitute for state or district level serosurvey. People must keep wearing masks and maintain physical distance until the vaccination drive successfully achieves the target. This is also no time to slacken the vaccination drive or relax on the three T's - testing, tracing and treating. Otherwise, the danger of a third wave will always remain. The guard cannot be dropped for the next 6/8 months. 

picture courtesy: ANI