Extended lockdown & herd immunity contribute to plateauing Covid cases: Expert

All the states witnessing plateauing in daily new cases have enforced total or partial lockdown at the local level. From Monday, lockdown in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and many other states have been extended for another one week.

New Delhi:As a few states have been observing plateauing in Covid-19 cases, experts in India’s health domain on Monday told ETV Bharat that along with extended local lockdown, herd immunity is also a major factor behind decreasing number of such cases.

“As per serosurvey, more than 30-40 per cent population have already generated antibodies to fight the disease. And with the extent people are automatically getting infected with the virus, many people are going towards herd immunity,” said Dr Giridhar Gyani, director general of Association of Health Care Providers (AHCP-India) in an exclusive interview.

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Union Health Ministry statistics said that 17 states including a few where maximum positive cases were reported till a few days back have been reporting a decreasing number of daily new cases.

States like Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Chandigarh among others have been showing continued plateauing in daily new cases.

“…We are getting closer to the herd immunity and sooner or later every person will be infected,” said Dr Gyani.

Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease and it creates antibodies in humans. Earlier, it was not advisable for the Indian population, but to the extent, the infection is spreading now, experts believe that people are going closer to herd immunity.

On May 1, Maharashtra registered 62,971 daily new cases whereas on May 15 it registered 44,637 daily new cases. Similarly, 24,253 for Delhi on May 1 came down to 12,588 on May 15. Uttar Pradesh registered 34,136 daily new cases on May 1 which came down to 20,421 on May 15. It was 14,305 for Gujarat on May 1 which slowed down to 11,045 on May 15.

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“Lockdown is also playing a very big role. It can break the chain of transmission,” said Dr Gyani and added “giving the fact that the current wave is very infectious, a lockdown was very much necessary.”

It may be mentioned here that Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also been demanding a national lockdown to break the chain of infection transmission.

“Infection spreads rapidly in the current wave of the pandemic. So, it is very much necessary to impose lockdown so that the infection does not spread,” added Dr Gyani.

Health Ministry data on Monday shows that daily new Covid cases registered across India are now less than 3 lakhs after 26 days.

“2,81,386 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours. The graph shows the average decline in daily new cases since May 9,” the Ministry said.

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