(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.) Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has indicated that the results of the second national sero-survey give no indication that there is herd immunity developing in India, and that there can't be a let up in the preventive measures that are being undertaken. The results of the second survey by the Indian Council for Medical research are yet to be published. The Health Minister also put Remdesivir and plasma therapy on the backburner, asking private hospitals not to use the investigational therapies as routine treatment. The results of the first sero-prevalence survey had pointed to a 0.73% national prevalence of COVID-19, or roughly 6.4 million cases in May. This indicated that there were 82-130 cases going undetected for every tested positive case. The numbers from the test results across the country crossed 6 million only yesterday. To develop herd immunity, at least 60% of the population should have developed antibodies to the disease either by natural process or by vaccination. If the results of the second survey also point to low prevalence, then a vaccine remains the only option against the disease. Since a viable vaccine is still several months away from production, and it may take 2 to 3 years to inoculate the entire population, the Minister's warning that there can be no let up in preventive measures is timely and makes this story important. |
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