Statistics
Statistical analysis was performed in GraphPad Prism 8 using non
parametric tests. Statistical significance of differences between groups
were assessed using Mann-Whitney U-test. Spearman’s rank-order
correlation was used to analyse the association between participant
attributes that had detectable values in our assays. Kaplan–Meier
curves were compared using Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. Statistical
significance was accepted at p<0.05.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no
competing interests including those of any financial nature.
Author Contribution: Sample processing, performing experiments,
data analysis and figure generation (Amit Kumar Singh, Nandini
Kasarpalkar, Shilpa Bhowmick). Participant recruitment, sample
processing and data analysis (Gaurav Paradkar, Mayur Talreja). Sample
processing (Abhishek Tiwari, Harsha Palav, Snehal Kaginkar). Participant
recruitment (Rajiv Kulkarni, Karan Shah). Sample collection (Ashwini
Patil, Varsha Kalsurkar). Performed experiments and Data analysis
(Sachee Agrawal, Jayanthi Shastri). Scholarly advice (Rajesh Dere,
Ramesh Bharmal, Smita Mahale). Conceived study, analysed data, compiled
results and wrote manuscript (Vikrant Bhor and Vainav Patel). All
authors revised the manuscript and gave final approval for publication.
Acknowledgement: We are extremely grateful to Director General,
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Ministry for Health & Family
Welfare, Government of India for encouraging and supporting with
resources, the pursuit of important research questions relevant to
COVID-19 pathogenesis. We would also like to thank Dr. Noora Pathan, Dr.
Mahesh Chaurasia, Dr. Rasika Satpute and Dr. Dharmesh Balsarkar for
facilitating recruitment of study participants and Mr. Omkar Arekar for
the assistance provided in data entry. Also, none of this work would
have been possible without the active participation and support of
participants to whom we are grateful.
Funding: Funding was through Institutional intramural core
support from ICMR-NIRRH.
Ethical Approval: Institutional Ethical Committee approval from
ICMR-NIRRH and T N medical college, Municipal Corporation of Greater
Mumbai (MCGM) was received for the study and informed consent of all
participating subjects was obtained.
Data Sharing: Raw/Source data are available on request but are
not shared here due to privacy/ethical concerns. Sharing of this data
will also be subject to local ethics approval if applicable.