Wed 30 September 2020:
Risk in urban slums is twice than that in non-slum areas and four times than the risk in a rural setting
Only 6.6% of Indian population exposed to COVID-19 so far! The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) released the findings of the second nation-wide sero-survey on Tuesday.
The survey found that by August, 6.6% of population surveyed, or one in every 15 individuals, of the age of 10 years or more have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the novel Coronavirus causing COVID-19.
This translated to the fact that a large portion of the country’s population is still vulnerable to the novel coronavirus, a report in The Indian Express said.
While giving a briefing about the findings of the study, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Balaram Bhargava said: “Risk in urban slums is twice than that in non-slum areas and four times than the risk in a rural setting.”
Bhargava added that despite this, there was still a considerable share of people who had yet to be unexposed to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.
A tweet from the vice president’s official account said Naidu was “asymptomatic and in good health. He has been advised home quarantine. His wife Smt. Usha Naidu has been tested negative and is in self-isolation.”
On Wednesday, India registered 80,472 news cases of the virus, as well as 1,179 deaths in the last 24 hours, said the data released by the Ministry of health.
The COVID-19 tally has crossed the 6.2 million mark and the death toll stands at 97,497. India has the second-highest coronavirus cases in the world after the US.
