The COVID-19 cases in India are accounting for less than 2% of the total population, which indicates the containment measures have worked to keep in control the spread as compared to several other countries where the segment of the affected population is higher, said the government.

The government also said that this means 98% of the population is still vulnerable and susceptible to coronavirus infection. It highlighted the necessity to continue the strict containment steps along with COVID appropriate behaviour.

On Tuesday, the health ministrys formulation at a media briefing raised eyebrows as they claimed that 98% of the population is vulnerable. It assumed that the prevalence of COVID-19 infection was strictly limited to the 2.5 crore cases reported till now.

The claim had ignored the outcome of the national sero-survey that one-fifth of the population has been exposed to the infection.

If the purpose was to show that a low percentage of the population was reported for the infection, then the association of the 98% population as vulnerable claim was confusing, and went against the official statistics on antibody incidence.

The government’s estimates are based on the total number of COVID-19 positive cases recorded. The findings of the last serological survey that was conducted by ICMR showed nearly one fifth or 21.4% of the countrys adult population (above 18 years) were exposed to COVID-19 by mid-December.

Source: ET Healthworld