Mumbai : A sero-survey conducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has indicated that 50 percent of children in a healthcare setting in Mumbai have Covid antibodies. A survey of children between the ages of 6 and 18 was conducted in May and June in 24 wards of Mumbai. The Sero survey results may prove promising against a predicted third wave expected to hit the state in the coming weeks, or months. Ten thousand children were sampled in the survey.

The Sero-survey of SARS-CoV-2 infection among the pediatric population of Mumbai was conducted by BYL Nair Hospital and Kasturba Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory of BMC “due to the imminent danger of the third wave to the pediatric population".The survey has found that more than 50 percent of the pediatric population in health care setting has antibodies to COVID-19. Moreover, it is found that, the proportion of the pediatric population having antibodies increased as compared to earlier sero-survey, a release by the BMC said.

The key findings of this study suggest that more than 50% of the pediatric population in a healthcare setting have already been exposed to SARS-COV-2. The overall sero-positivity is 51.18% including 54.36% from the public sector and 47.03% from the private sector," the results from the survey said.

The release said sero-positivity is the highest in the age group of 10-14 years at 53.43%.“Taking age into consideration, the Sero-positivity rate of 1 to 4 years is 51.04%, 5 to 9 years is 47.33%, 10 to 14 years is 53.43%, 15 to 18 years is 51.39%. The overall Sero-positivity rate of 1 to 18 years is 51.18%," the BMC said.BMC said there is an increase in the seropositivity of children in this study compared to previously one conducted in March 2021. “The last survey showed a sero-positivity of 39.4% in the age group of ≤ 18 years which indicates that a significant proportion of children accessing the healthcare services were exposed to the virus during the second wave of COVID-19," it said.