SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among the general population and healthcare workers in India, December 2020–January 2021

Manoj Murhekar ,Ashrafjit S Chahal,K Kalaiyarasi,Niraj Kumar,Rochak Saxena,Pravin Bharti,Dinesh Kumar Bharadwaj,Shalini Singh,Krithikaa Sekar,Kangjam Rekha Devi,Alka Turuk,Samiran Panda,Amarendra Mahapatra,Himanshu Chauhan,Shanta Dutta,Sudha Rani,Sampada Dipak Bangar,Srikanta Kanungo,Surabhi Yadav,Aakash Shrivastava,Ramesh Kumar Hudda,Somashekar Narasimhaiah,Annamma Jose,Chethana Rangaraju,Chandrasekaran Padmapriyadarshini,Suresh Yadav,K Sujeetha,Y.K Sharma,R Sabarinathan,Amit Chakrabarti,Muthusamy Santhosh Kumar,Jaya Singh Kshatri,P Gnana Soundari,Debjit Chakraborty,Smita Asthana,Kamran Zaman,Rushikesh Andhalkar,Krishna Pandey,Prashant Kumar Singh,Ganta Venkata Prasad,Alok Kumar,Rakesh Balachandar,Rajni Kant,Rajeev Singh,G Kiruthika,D Chokkalingam,M.M.E Gowtham,Tanu Anand,Dantuluri Sheethal Varma,Jyothi Bhat,Jyotirmayee Turuk,Nivethitha N Krishnan,Arshad Kalliath,K Nagbhushanam,Jeromie Wesley Vivian Thangaraj,Tarun Bhatnagar,Hari Bhan Singh,Pushpendra Singh,Alok Kumar Deb,Ganesh Mehta,Hirawati Deval,K Arunraj,Babu Jagjeevan,T Karunakaran,Balram Bhargava,Dasarathi Das,Arya Vinod,Tanzin Dikid,Avula Laxmaiah,Ankit Viramgami,Josephine Pradhan,Sanket Kulkarni,Ravindra Mohan Pandey,Sanghamitra Pati,E Michaelraj,Tekumalla Ramarao,P.R Asish,Sarang Dhatrak,Swarup Sarkar,Nivetha Srinivasan,Avi Kumar Bansal,Shashi Kant,Debdutta Bhattacharya,Seema Sahay,Gaurav Raj Dwivedi,Vimith Cheruvathoor Wilson,Sauvik Dasgupta,Inaamul Haq,Anindya Mitra,Kanwar Narain,Prathiksha Giridharan,Vikas Dhikav,Anshuman Chaudhury,Arlappa Nimmathota,Vijay Kumar Shukla,Anusha Hindupur,E.B Arun Prasath,Major Madhukar,D Elantamilan,M Chellakumar,Kiran Rade,Mariya Amin Qurieshi,Aby Robinson,D Gladys Angelin Rachel,Vishal Chopra,Sirasanambatti Devarajulu Reddy,Sanjay Zodpe,Sriram Selvaraju,R Sivakumar ,Harendra Kumar ,Raman Gangakhedkar ,Ashok Pandey ,Sunil Kumar M ,Gangeti Gandhi Jayanthi Naga Lakshmi ,R S Dayal ,Saravanakumar Velusamy ,Sujeet Kumar Singh ,Shripad A Patil ,D C S Reddy ,Amanda G.a Rozario ,Manjit Kumar ,Namrata Mishra ,C P Girish Kumar ,Rupinder Singh Dhaliwal ,A Nirmala ,N Karthik ,Sacheen Kumar ,Abdul Mabood Khan ,Virendra Kumar ,R Hemalatha ,Ashim Das ,Giridhara R Babu ,Jaya Prakash Muliyil ,Naman K Shah ,Shaziya Khan

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2021.05.040

Abstract

BackgroundEarlier serosurveys in India revealed seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) of 0.73% in May–June 2020 and 7.1% in August–September 2020. A third serosurvey was conducted between December 2020 and January 2021 to estimate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among the general population and healthcare workers (HCWs) in India. MethodsThe third serosurvey was conducted in the same 70 districts as the first and second serosurveys. For each district, at least 400 individuals aged ≥10 years from the general population and 100 HCWs from subdistrict-level health facilities were enrolled. Serum samples from the general population were tested for the presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against the nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S1-RBD) proteins of SARS-CoV-2, whereas serum samples from HCWs were tested for anti-S1-RBD. Weighted seroprevalence adjusted for assay characteristics was estimated. ResultsOf the 28,598 serum samples from the general population, 4585 (16%) had IgG antibodies against the N protein, 6647 (23.2%) had IgG antibodies against the S1-RBD protein, and 7436 (26%) had IgG antibodies against either the N protein or the S1-RBD protein. Weighted and assay-characteristic-adjusted seroprevalence against either of the antibodies was 24.1% [95% confidence interval (CI) 23.0–25.3%]. Among 7385 HCWs, the seroprevalence of anti-S1-RBD IgG antibodies was 25.6% (95% CI 23.5–27.8%). ConclusionsNearly one in four individuals aged ≥10 years from the general population as well as HCWs in India had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 by December 2020.

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