While many, such as NITI Aayog warned of vulnerability, a leading immunologist, Dr Dipyaman Ganguly, Principal Scientist at CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata believes that the current trend may be one of the factors favourable to signs of herd immunity.
In an interview with New Indian Express, Dr Ganguly said that the sero surveillance data pointed to a lot of factors which can tell us how India is fighting COVID-19:
“Herd immunity has been a phrase people were scared of uttering in this pandemic. This data(23.4%) means different things to different interest groups. To me, the most striking revelation is the sheer speed the infection is spreading with. In my understanding the race between vaccination and herd immunity will be won by the latter…infected persons do mount a robust immune response against the virus, rather at times it’s too aggravated a response which is driving the disease to untoward ends.”
Based on the statement, there are three broad parameters which can ascertain whether or not a city like Delhi could be on its course to achieve herd immunity.