ICMR plans nationwide sero-survey to detect COVID-19 exposure in people
A plan of a nationwide sero-survey which will be accomplished to identify the exposure of the coronavirus infection among the populace has been announced by ICMR. This survey will certainly resemble the one carried out in May, the outcomes of which are still awaited.
Testing of blood serum of a group of people and using it to check trends of the COVID-19 at the district level is the process entailed in a sero-survey. The survey is accomplished by the ICMR in collaboration with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as well as with the help of state health departments.
Rajesh Bhushan, Officer on Special Duty, the Union Health Ministry said that the outcomes of the sero-survey that had been conducted by the research body in May is still under process, which concentrated on infections of mid-April.
Bhushan claimed that the primary findings of the sero-survey that ICMR conducted across the country concentrated on infections of mid-April were released. Such sero-surveillance studies or any other clinical studies are subjected to peer-review and those inputs are additionally included to make sure that process is going on. When the
survey gets completed we will be in a position to share it.ICMR’s data reveals that, according to the information from the first part of the sero-survey compiled from 65 districts out of 83 districts throughout the nation, 0.73% of the population surveyed had revealed evidence of past direct exposure to COVID-19.
The outcomes of the previous sero-survey, which has been accomplished in Delhi by the NCDC is also under process, the survey was carried out in 22,000 samples, collected from June 27 to July 5 from 11 districts.
According to an official, ICMR is intending a follow up sero-survey pan-India to the earlier sero-survey, that they had been done for mid-April COVID-19 infections, in the near future.
Author: Sruthi S
