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Reassessing Reported Deaths and Estimated Infection Attack Rate during the First 6 Months of the COVID-19 Epidemic, Delhi, India

Authors :
Margarita Pons-Salort
Jacob John
Oliver J. Watson
Nicholas F. Brazeau
Robert Verity
Gagandeep Kang
Nicholas C. Grassly
Source :
Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol 28, Iss 4, Pp 759-766 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022.

Abstract

India reported >10 million coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases and 149,000 deaths in 2020. To reassess reported deaths and estimate incidence rates during the first 6 months of the epidemic, we used a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission model fit to data from 3 serosurveys in Delhi and time-series documentation of reported deaths. We estimated 48.7% (95% credible interval 22.1%–76.8%) cumulative infection in the population through the end of September 2020. Using an age-adjusted overall infection fatality ratio based on age-specific estimates from mostly high-income countries, we estimated that just 15.0% (95% credible interval 9.3%–34.0%) of COVID-19 deaths had been reported, indicating either substantial underreporting or lower age-specific infection-fatality ratios in India than in high-income countries. Despite the estimated high attack rate, additional epidemic waves occurred in late 2020 and April–May 2021. Future dynamics will depend on the duration of natural and vaccine-induced immunity and their effectiveness against new variants.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
10806040 and 10806059
Volume :
28
Issue :
4
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Emerging Infectious Diseases
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.24d2d318f9a4e42b256043360f40074
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2804.210879