CAPITAL TO CONDUCT SERO SURVEY EVERY MONTH

NEW DELHI:: A new citywide blood sampling will be carried out in the first five days of every month beginning in August, Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain said on Wednesday, announcing a regular survey to determine how much further Covid-19 may have spread in the Capital – a strategy that could show how close the city is to achieving herd immunity and whether it needs to tweak its response measures.

The announcement came a day after the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) released results from the first such surveillance – known as a serological study – showing that 22.86% of 21,387 people who were tested showed signs of being exposed to the virus.

“Sero survey identifies people who have recovered from the disease. The 23% result of the previous survey is most likely to be people who got infected around mid-june, because antibodies take around 15 days to develop. It has been more than a month now. The government plans to make it a monthly exercise. We shall be doing the next sero survey between August 1 and 5,” Jain said.the figures from the NCDC report, if extrapolated, could mean that over 4.5 million people -- or nearly 1 in every 4 - have had the disease and recovered till June end, manifold more than the 126,323 confirmed till Wednesday. They also suggest that the disease kills only 0.07% of people infected, as opposed to the 2.94% fatality rate in the city.