oppn parties Serosurvey Results No Reason To Relax

News Snippets

  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
D Gukesh is the new chess world champion at 18, the first teen to wear the crown. Capitalizes on an error by Ding Liren to snatch the crown by winning the final game g
oppn parties
Serosurvey Results No Reason To Relax

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

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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