8% of Haryana’s population is infected with coronavirus
Urban areas, NCR districts show higher seropositivity rate
CHANDIGARH: About 8% of the population in Haryana has been found infected with coronavirus. The findings were made on the basis of first round of a serological survey conducted by the health department.
The survey conducted in collaboration with PGIMER, Chandigarh, measured the proportion of population exposed to coronavirus infection, including asymptomatic individuals.
Health minister Anil Vij said that 18,905 blood samples from all 22 districts were put to immunoglobulin-ELISA test in August to determine how many people have developed Covid-19 antibodies.
The health authorities took samples from 850 people, including 500 from rural areas of each district. Vij said the urban population was found to be more affected than the rural. “Seropositivity in urban areas was 9.6%, while it was 6.9% in the rural areas,” he said.
NCR population more infected
Additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora, said that national capital region (NCR) districts have high seropositivity.
“It is 25.8% (31.1% in urban and 22.2% in rural) in Faridabad, 13.3% (18% in urban and 10% in rural) in Sonepat and 10.8% (18.5% in urban and 5.7% in rural) in Gurugram,” Arora said.
The Additional chief secretary said the reason behind higher seropositivity in NCR districts as compared to non-NCR districts could be high density of population due to urban slums, multistoreyed buildings and daily movement of people.
Higher seropositivity than the state average of 8% was also noticed in some other districts like Karnal (12.2%), Jind (11%), Kurukshetra (8.7%), Charkhi Dadri (8.3%) and Yamunanagar (8.3%).
Districts having lower seropositivity than the state average were Panipat and Palwal (7.4% each), Panchkula (6.5%), Jhajjar (5.9%), Ambala (5.2%), Rewari (4.9%), Sirsa (3.6%), Hisar (3.4%), Fatehabad (3.3%), Bhiwani (3.2%), Mahendergarh (2.8%) and Kaithal (1.7%).
‘Low prevalence means majority population vulnerable’
The ACS said that since 8% population of Haryana has developed antibodies, the low prevalence can be attributed to the proactive efforts taken by the government to prevent the spread of infection, including prompt lockdown, effective testing strategies, containment and surveillance measures such as contact tracing.
Director health services, IDSP, Dr Usha Gupta said low prevalence also meant that majority of population is still vulnerable to the virus.
“Thus, containment measures need to be enforced with the same rigor. Non-pharmacological interventions such as physical distancing, use of masks, hand hygiene, cough etiquettes and avoidance of crowded places must also be followed strictly,” Director health services, IDSP, Dr Usha Gupta added.
Health officials said immunoglobulin antibodies generally start appearing after two weeks of onset of infection and last for several months.
“We wanted to know how many people have already suffered from this virus, including asymptomatic individuals. Many people get infected but do not have any symptoms like fever, cough, and cold.
In several cases, the symptoms are so mild that they go unnoticed. The immunoglobulin-ELISA blood test tells us if they got this infection in the recent past,” the Additional chief secretary said.
Based on the results, public health interventions can be planned and implemented for the prevention and control of the disease.
Director health services, IDSP, Dr Usha Gupta said a stratified multistage random sampling technique was used. Sixteen clusters — 12 rural and four urban — were randomly selected for the collection of samples.