Mumbai: Those in chawls, slums have higher antibodies, says BMC

Sero-survey shows 46 per cent of those tested in public labs and 22 per cent tested at pvt labs have antibodies leading to above interpretation

A Serological survey conducted by a team of the BMC’s  health department and doctors from medical colleges across the city has revealed the presence of antibodies in more samples taken from public laboratories as compared to those from private ones. This points at a trend that lower-middle class and middle-class, mainly residing in slums and chawls, have higher antibodies than those staying in high-rises. 

The civic body had collected about 12,000 samples (6,000 each) from public laboratories — where COVID-19 tests are free for all, and private laboratories — where a charge is taken for the tests. The primary report of the survey shows that 46 per cent of the samples collected from public labs have antibodies whereas, only 22 per cent of the samples from private labs have antibodies. A senior civic official said that this pointed at the trend that those living in slums and chawls were mainly undergoing tests at public laboratories and had higher antibodies than those residing in buildings.

BMC health workers conduct antigen tests of arriving passengers at Dadar station. File pic

However, the civic body does not consider this as herd immunity, as for it to develop, 70 per cent of the population needs to have antibodies. Officials said that the current percentage was way less than the benchmark.

Speaking to mid-day, Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, “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. 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.”

46 per cent
Samples from public labs that have antibodies

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