Need to accelerate pace of vaccination in districts with low seroprevalence : NIE experts

‘Third wave in India will be much smaller than the second wave’

Districts with low seroprevalence and low COVID-19 vaccination coverage must be prioritised for targeted interventions such as vaccination. The areas where seroprevalence is low, the chances of virus spreading faster and emergence of new variants are high, experts of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE) have said. In an email interview, Manoj Murhekar, director of NIE and T. Jeromie, epidemiologist at NIE, outlined the need for Tamil Nadu to accelerate the pace of vaccination especially in districts where seroprevalence was found to be low since one-third of the population was still susceptible for infection, while continuing adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. “The recent serosurvey conducted in the State indicates that around two thirds of the population has IgG antibodies against the virus. There is a wide variation in the seroprevalence between the districts, ranging from 37% in Erode to 82% in Chennai. It is reasonable to expect that the transmission will continue especially in districts with lower seroprevalence. The future surge of cases in the State is expected to be lower than the second wave. However, if a new immune escape variant emerges, we might see a bigger surge,” Dr. Murhekar said.