Kerala awaits seroprevalence results to open schools

TRIVANDRUM: Kerala is eagerly waiting for the outcome of the ongoing seroprevalence survey to reopen its schools that are remaining shut for many months now.

If the presence of antibodies is found in their blood they are considered to have acquired some immunity against COVID-19 through vaccination or infection.

An earlier survey, held three months back, had shown seroprevalence in over 40 per cent of the samples tested and if it goes above 70, they feel it’s safe to open schools.

Currently, the focus is on vaccinating the adult population and it has covered almost three-fourths of them with at least one dose.

The authorities hope to begin vaccination of children soon as the threat of the third wave of infections is looming large, making them more vulnerable to the disease.

Last week, the Supreme Court stopped an atempt to hold exams for Class 11 with a warning to hold the state accountable for “even one case reported for a student.”

The public health experts had also warned of a possible third wave of infections largely affecting children.

Kerala currently accounts for around threefourths of the daily cases, more than half of deaths and over 60 per cent of India’s active caseload.

The state’s health minister Veena George said the seroprevalence study was progressing across the state and the results would be available by the month-end.

“The study will help understand the Covid seropositivity rate among various age groups including children,” she said.

“It will help understand the seropositivity among children and the government will take further decisions (on beginning offline classes) ater the study.”

On Sunday, the state reported only 20,240 new cases as testing dropped sharply but the test-positivity rate (TPR) increased to 17.51 from 15.19 per cent the previous day.

It also confirmed 67 deaths and 29,710 recoveries while the active caseload remains at 222,255. The weekly TPR is 16.53 in Kerala as against 2.17 per cent nationally.

As directed by a federal multidisciplinary team of experts, the authorities have strengthened infection prevention by following Covid appropriate behaviour.

A health ministry statement claimed that the rate of vaccination per million population is the highest in Kerala compared to other Indian states.

More than 94 per cent of the people aged above 45 years with a single dose and half of them got both jabs.