Moscow, October 5: Herd immunity against coronavirus (COVID-19) infection can be achieved within a given population after only 3-10 percent of the people get sick, suggests a new model of the virus's spread developed by specialists at the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Herd immunity is obtained when a large population gets infected and developed immunity against the disease. Indian Population Still Far from Achieving Herd Immunity Shows ICMR's Second Sero Survey: Harsh Vardhan.

"It turned out that it is possible to significantly reduce the rate of increase in (coronavirus) infections and achieve herd immunity with a significantly lower percentage of cases, down to 3-10 percent of the population," scientists at the Joint Institute for High Temperatures told Sputnik. The institute's new model takes four parameters into account: the number of people within a given population, the number of potentially dangerous contacts an infected individual has per day, the probability of getting infected and the span of the illness. COVID-19: WHO Official Says Attempts to Reach Herd Immunity Naturally 'Dangerous'.

What is Herd Immunity?

"Having studied the statistical data and existing interpretations, we realised that the model of the spread of the virus should take into account the presence of the minimum duration of the disease, and also that the maximum infectivity falls not on the first, but on the following days of the disease," scientist Sergey Trigger was quoted by Sputnik. Earlier studies have suggested that herd immunity can be achieved when upto 60-70 percent of the population is infected with COVID-19.

Global COVID-19 Tally:

Globally, of the approximately 35 million people known to have COVID-19, more than 10,00,00 have died. The rest have recovered and have some degree of natural immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. As of Monday, the total number of cases stood at 35,075,423 and the fatalities rose to 1,036,095, according to Johns Hopkins University.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 05, 2020 04:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).