CHENNAI: The overall sero-prevalence in Tamil Nadu among the people over and above the age of 18 has increased to 87 per cent in December 2021, the Health Department said on Wednesday.
According to the data shared by the Health Department, the sero-prevalence which was at 32 per cent in November 2020 (first sero survey) dropped to 29 per cent in April 2021 (second sero survey) and again surged to 70 per cent in August 2021 (third sero survey).
“In December 2021, it grew to 87 per cent,” the findings said.
A 30-member team was formed into 1,076 groups which examined 32, 245 people in rural and urban areas for the study.
Accordingly, the sero-prevalence among the people aged above 18 grew to 87 per cent, it said.
However, the study revealed those individuals between the age of 11 and 18 and the unvaccinated had just 68 per cent of sero-prevalence.
The findings revealed that among the 27,324 people who received the vaccination shots, the sero-prevalence was at 90 per cent (24,667 people) while 4,921 people who did not receive the vaccination, the sero-prevalence was at 69 per cent.
As per the study, sero-prevalence stood at 89.5 per cent for people between the age of 18 and 44 while it was 88.6 per cent for people between the age of 45 and 59.
For those above the age of 60, the sero-prevalence stood at 84.5 per cent.
For children between 10 and 18, it stood at 68.4 per cent.
All the districts reported sero-prevalance of over 82 per cent with Tiruvarur topping the list at 93 per cent while Tirupathur was at the bottom of table at 82 per cent, it said.
Tamil Nadu on Wednesday added 3,971 new Covid-19 infections, pushing the caseload to 34,24,476 while 28 more fatalities took the death toll to 37,837, the health department said.
Recoveries eclipsed new cases with 16,473 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 33,09,032 leaving 77,607 active infections, a medical bulletin said.
Chennai and Coimbatore accounted for the majority of new infections with 742 and 726 cases, respectively, while the remaining was spread across other districts.
Perambalur recorded the least with nine new cases getting reported in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.
Those who tested positive today included four returnees from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand.
A total of 1,10,494 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 6,28,70,191.
Meanwhile, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said in Tamil Nadu among those who tested Covid-19 positive, only four per cent required hospitalization and seven per cent of patients were in the intensive care unit.
After releasing the fourth edition of the sero positivity report that was conducted in December 2021, here, he said it has been revealed that 87 per cent of the people have antibodies against Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu.
“Coming Saturday (Feb 12) the 22nd Covid mega vaccination camp will be held. Tomorrow the camp to administer precautionary booster dose will be conducted. Till date 7.59 lakh people have received the precautionary booster dose in the state,” he told reporters.
“There are 1.50 lakh people eligible to receive the ‘precautionary booster dose’ and we appeal to them to make use of the camp,” he said.
