https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/28/upshot/coronavirus-herd-immunity.html
By Nadja Popovich and Margot Sanger-KatzMay 28, 2020

The coronavirus still has a long way to go. That’s the message from a crop of new studies across the world that are trying to quantify how many people have been infected.

Official case counts often substantially underestimate the number of coronavirus infections. But in new studies that test the population more broadly, the percentage of people who have been infected so far is still in the single digits. The numbers are a fraction of the threshold known as herd immunity, at which the virus can no longer spread widely. The precise herd immunity threshold for the novel coronavirus is not yet clear; but several experts said they believed it would be higher than 60 percent.
Even in some of the hardest-hit cities in the world, the studies suggest, the vast majority of people still remain vulnerable to the virus.

Some countries — notably Sweden, and briefly Britain — have experimented with limited lockdowns in an effort to build up immunity in their populations. But even in these places, recent studies indicate that no more than 7 to 17 percent of people have been infected so far. In New York City, which has had the largest coronavirus outbreak in the United States, around 20 percent of the city’s residents have been infected by the virus as of early May, according to a survey of people in grocery stores and community centers released by the governor’s office.

Similar surveys are underway in China, where the coronavirus first emerged, but results have not yet been reported. A study from a single hospital in the city of Wuhan found that about 10 percent of people seeking to go back to work had been infected with the virus.

Viewed together, the studies show herd immunity protection is unlikely to be reached “any time soon,” said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The herd immunity threshold for this new disease is still uncertain, but many epidemiologists believe it will be reached when between 60 percent and 80 percent of the population has been infected and develops resistance. A lower level of immunity in the population can slow the spread of a disease somewhat, but the herd immunity number represents the point where infections are substantially less likely to turn into large outbreaks.

“We don’t have a good way to safely build it up, to be honest, not in the short term,” Dr. Mina said. “Unless we’re going to let the virus run rampant again — but I think society has decided that is not an approach available to us.” READ ON

For those thinking Nigerians may have attained herd immunity or will be doing so sometime soon, na lie!

Incoming corona conspiracy comments

Kobojunkie:
For those thinking Nigerians may have attained herd immunity or will be doing so sometime soon, na lie!

How else would they continue saying it's just malaria

Can you explain why others have mild symptoms

majority have been infected and recovered over the world even unknownlly to them including here in Nigeria.I strongly believe that herd immunity is within sight.

Some states in the Nigerian federation are already relaxing their lock-down measures, as though the worst can be simply declared to be over, by government fiat, and wishful thinking.

Brazil, whose climate is the same as that of Nigeria, is now witnessing thousands of Covid 19 deaths per day, and that sobering statistic alone, ought to educate the Nigerian government about the need to be EXTREMELY cautious when it comes to relaxing movement restrictions, because any gamble that is made prematurely, could turn Nigeria, and much of West Africa, into the next ground zero epicenter for virus deaths.,

Jakumo:
Some states in the Nigerian federation are already relaxing their lock-down measures, as though the worst can be simply declared to be over, by government fiat, and wishful thinking.

Brazil, whose climate is the same as that of Nigeria, is now witnessing thousands of Covid 19 deaths per day, and that sobering statistic alone, ought to educate the Nigerian government about the need to be EXTREMELY cautious when it comes to relaxing movement restrictions, because any gamble that is made prematurely, could turn Nigeria, and much of West Africa, into the next ground zero epicenter for virus deaths.,

The news from Brazil does not seem to be getting better.