Coronavirus live updates | Half of Hyderabad, Secunderabad's population have antibodies, says study

The number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 has reached 18.01 million in the country.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 11.17 million as of 8 a.m. today, with 16,838 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, according to data from the Health ministry.

The number of active cases rose by 2,906 in the past 24 hours, and the total number of active cases now stands at 176,319. So far, the virus has claimed 157,548 lives, while 10.83 million people have recovered.

You can track coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates at the national and State levels here. A list of State Helpline numbers is available as well.

Here are the latest updates:

Three generations of women vaccinated in Chennai

Three women, spanning three generations, were vaccinated against COVID-19 on Thursday at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai.

C.R. Kamalammal, 102, her daughter Rama Sridharan, 74, and granddaughter Sumana Premkumar received their vaccination at the hospital.

Ms. Kamalammal said, “The vaccine is safe and I urge everyone to take it immediately as I did.”

Hospital co-founder and executive director Aravindan Selvaraj said, “It is really interesting to see so many senior citizens coming forward to take their dose of vaccines, and this particular family with the senior-most person is truly an example for other elderly people. The vaccines are safe and administered as per the government protocols. We insist more people come forward and take the vaccine in order to fight the pandemic.”

Half of Hyderabad, Secunderabad’s population have antibodies, says study

About 54% of the population in Hyderabad and Secunderabad within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits have been found to be having antibodies against coronavirus in a latest sero-surveillance survey conducted by city-based scientific institutions.

The study conducted jointly by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) on a sample size of about 9,000 participants, all of them older than 10 years, has indicated that half the population has either been infected or exposed to coronavirus.

“It is very exciting as we could be near the end of this pandemic. We have reached a critical stage of infection among the population. This is the right time to go for vaccination when the infection transmission is weak and there are no cases of re-infection. This could take the antibodies prevalence among the population to 75-80% when the herd immunity may kick in,” said CCMB Director Rakesh Mishra at a press conference on Thursday.

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