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According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan, about 50-60 per cent of the world population needs to get immune to the coronavirus so as to develop the “herd immunity,” as per the Associated Press report.
Herd immunity is achieved after a considerable population gets naturally cured by the virus or is vaccinated to block its spread.
Addressing a social media event on Friday, Dr Swaminathan stated that only 5-10 per cent of the world population has developed antibodies against the COVID-19. Exceptions are there as some countries have immunity as high as 20 per cent.
She said as cited in the Associated Press report, “As there are waves of this infection going through countries, people are going to develop antibodies and those people will hopefully be immune for some time so they will also act as barriers and brakes to the spread."
Many countries have mulled on the herd immunity effect. However, Swaminathan is of the view that it should be achieved after the development of the vaccine, otherwise the virus will rip through the population.
Other experts on the field speculated that around 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the population need to develop antibodies against the virus to bring the herd immunity effect.
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