Percentage of people with Covid antibodies shows upward surge: Pune lab

Suburban Diagnostics Centre states more people are coming forward to carry out tests.

PUNE The number of people who have developed Covid-19 antibodies is showing an upward surge in the city and more people are coming forward to carry out tests, according to Suburban Diagnostics Centre. The private lab conducted 916 Covid-19 antibody tests between August and November 2020.

As many as 177 tests were done in August, 455 in September, 261 in October and 23 were done till November 10.

“The highest percentage of people to have built antibodies for Covid-19 was seen in October, which was 54.40 per cent, followed by 52.17 per cent in November, 45.71 per cent in September and in August it was 37.28 per cent,” said Dr Abhishek Shivankar, deputy general manager, customer excellence, Suburban Diagnostics Centre Pune.

“People are now keen to undergo Covid-19 antibody tests and are visiting the lab for getting tested. Various industries like IT, real estate and manufacturing units are approaching us for Covid-19 antibody test,” he said.

Two other private labs in the city refused to comment on the status of Covid-19 antibody tests.

“It is good that more and more people are developing Covid-19 antibodies, but one cannot relax as how long these antibodies continue to remain in one’s body varies. So people need to take precautionary measures,” said Dr Pavan Salve, additional health and medical officer, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).

As of Tuesday, Pune city reported 187 new Covid cases taking the total count to 174,433 and zero deaths taking the death toll to 4,073.