10.76% people in the state were unaware that they were infected with coronavirus

A study in Kerala found out that 10.76% of people who were infected with coronavirus didn’t even know they had Covid. The finding was made in a Serosurveillance study conducted by the State’s Health Department last month.

For the study, 20,939 people including members of the public, health workers, and Covid front line fighters were brought under surveillance.  Serosurveillance provides estimates of antibody levels against infectious diseases and is considered the gold standard for measuring population immunity due to past infection or vaccination.

The study found out that an estimated that 10.76% of patients in Kerala were infected with the disease without any significant symptoms. So the patients never knew they were infected with covidvirus.

The study also found out that Seroprevalence is 8% in senior citizens, 10.5% in health workers, and 12% in Covid front line fighters. At the national level, only one in 30 cases are detected and reported, while in Kerala, one in four cases is detected and reported.

Seroprevalence is the number of persons in a population who test positive for a specific disease based on serology specimens; often presented as a percent of the total specimens tested or as a proportion per 100,000 persons tested.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also conducted a Seroprevalence Survey on 1200 people three times in three districts in Kerala. Last May the survey found out that, the zero prevalence in Kerala was 0.3% while the national level percentage was 0.73. When the survey was again conducted in August, it was 0.8 per cent in the state and 6.6 % in the country. In December Seroprevalence was 11.6% in Kerala and 21 % nationally.