Vegetarians, smokers at lesser risk of catching Covid: CSIR survey

Vegetarians and smokers were found to have lower seropositivity, meaning they were at a lower risk of contracting Covid-19, according to the results of a nationwide serosurvey by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi.

People with the blood group B and AB were at a greater risk while those with blood group O were at lesser risk of catching the infection.

For the survey, CSIR analysed and took samples from 10,427 adults in its labs and their family members to check the presence of antibodies. Out of these, 1058 had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.

A follow up was done of seropositive individuals for 3 months and six months for antibodies. On the other hand higher seropositivity was seen for those using public transport, non smokers, non vegetarians and in occupations like housekeeping, security, the survey said.