‘Sero survey in all 75 districts of UP from next week’

LUCKNOW : Uttar Pradesh will conduct a massive serosampling survey on Covid infection in 75 districts of the state beginning next week, said Amit Mohan Prasad, additional chief secretary, medical health department, Uttar Pradesh. The training of the staff, which will conduct the serosampling, will be held before the collection of samples for the survey begins, said Prasad.

Uttar Pradesh will conduct a massive sero-sampling survey on Covid infection in 75 districts of the state beginning next week, said Amit Mohan Prasad, additional chief secretary, medical health department, Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, Prasad said, “The sero-survey in all 75 districts will help us understand the Covid infection in the population.”

The training of the staff which will conduct the sero-sampling will be held before the collection of samples for the survey begins, said Prasad.

Earlier in September 2020, the state health department had conducted serological survey in eleven districts in the state, including Meerut, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Gorakhpur,

Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Moradabad, Ghaziabad, Baghpat and Agra.“It was carried out to understand the development of antibodies among the population,” said officials.

The result of the sero-sampling suggested that about one in five of the 16,000 people tested during a serological survey in September showed the prevalence of antibodies against the Sars-Cov-2 pathogen that causes the Covid-19 disease.

According to the health department, of the total 16,000 samples, 3,536 tested positive for antibodies, which is 22.1% in terms of sero prevalence. Blood samples were collected in 11 districts with the maximum Covid cases on September 4, 2020.

From each district, 1,450 samples were collected for tests. The samples were sent to KGMU, Lucknow, for testing to determine the presence of antibodies.