(Daily News Scan - DNS English) What is Sero Survey
It has been quite some time now that unlock has been emphasized in most of the parts of India excepting the containment zones. As unlock came into force, there has been a sudden rise in the number of cases of coronavirus. The state of Haryana has also observed a sharp spike in the number of coronavirus cases. The state’s coronavirus cases-doubling rate fell from 21 days to 6 days, while the patients recovery rate fell from 72% to just 34%. The government of Haryana is looking forward to check if there is any community transmission. They will opt for serosurveys to find out about the community transmission.
In this DNS we will know about what Serosurveys is and what the state wants to achieve with this.
The survey involves testing of blood serum to detect whether a person is Covid infected. It also looks for whether the person has had any such infections in the past. According to health department officials, the Sero survey will be conducted in all districts of the state for a test called ‘Covid Kavach Elisa’. The test will also identify antibodies being produced in the body to combat Covid-19. The basic purpose of this survey will be to find out the proportion of population in the state that has got exposed to the coronavirus infection.
The test will be conducted in NCR, hotspot areas and high-risk zones across the state. Frontline workers that comprises of doctors, nursing staff, paramedical staff, police etc. of Gurgaon, Faridabad and other districts in NCR will be tested on priority. The entire cost of testing will be borne by the government. This test kit has been developed by the ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. Haryana is among a few selected states in the country conducting this type of investigation. The Sero survey has been conducted in 83 hotspot districts across the country.
Haryana has witnessed a sudden number of rise in Covid cases. While Covid deaths have increased by five times, the number of infected patients increased more than three times in the last two weeks. On June 4, there were 28 Covid deaths while the total number of Covid patients was 3,281. However, in the last fortnight, 106 patients died, taking the death toll to 134, while the number of patients crossed 9,400. Most of the districts of Haryana are witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases but the worst affected districts continue to be those that are sharing borders with Delhi. These include Gurgaon, Faridabad and Sonipat. These three districts have maximum cases and majority of deaths in the state. Although the state government has not yet declared a state of community transmission, the manner in which the cases are rising, the possibility cannot be ruled out, at least in the coming days.
Previously, ICMR has conducted serosurveys in 83 districts of the country. The findings of the survey revealed that 0.73 per cent of the population in these districts had evidence of past exposure to coronavirus. The ICMR then declared that the survey’s findings indicated that containment zones and lockdown regulations had proved successful in keeping the number of cases low and preventing rapid spread of infection.
This survey is one of the useful methods when it comes to finding out the infected person among large number of people specially when there is a doubt if community transmission. Depending on the prevalence of the infection, appropriate public health measures and actions can be planned with proper implementation.
