Near Complete Protection Against Covid-19 in a Section of Population: Implication of Lockdown on Development of Passive Vaccination to Counter SARS-CoV-2 Attack

COVID-19 is fast spreading around the globe in a highly contagious manner. Until date there are no therapeutic agents/vaccines developed which could control this highly infectious virus from spreading among human population. During early stage of COVID-19, stringent Lockdown was implemented throughout India on 25 March, 2020. Our earlier findings reflected that early introduction of complete Lockdown significantly controlled the spread of COVID-19 in the population immediately after Lockdown. It was hypothesized that immune response was responsible for the control of the spread of COVID-19. To further evaluate the role of immune response/passive vaccination, data from COVID-19 positive/recovered individuals in eight states were assessed for the month of December, 2020. The results from our study reflect that in all the eight states, there was marked decrease in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases after Lockdown, with one region recording no COVID-19 cases. All the states studied had very low number of active cases; the minimum number being two even after such a long period from the start of this disease. A negative correlation between number of recovered individuals and number of active cases of COVID-19 was noted. Here we hypothesize that passive immunization may have played a significant role in controlling SARS-CoV-2. It could be inferred from this study that implementation of prolonged Lockdown was able attenuate the virus and create an environment for the development of passive immunity in the section of population studied.