SERO SURVEY IN NEW DELHI LIKELY AFTER LOCKDOWN

The sixth sero survey in Delhi may resume after the ongoing lockdown is lifted, health department officials said. The survey was launched on April 12 but halted only after two days with the unprecedented spike in daily cases and the imposition of curbs to break the chain of transmission.

The government has been carrying out sero surveys to measure the rate of exposure to the Sars-cov-2 virus, which causes Covid-19. “The sero survey had to be stopped after two days because of the increasing number of cases. Now, there hasn’t been any discussion on when the sero survey will be completed. It is likely to happen only once the lockdown is lifted. This sero survey will capture the number of people who were exposed to the infection during the current wave,” said an official from Delhi’s health department.

A senior district official confirmed the development, stating that the government has given no direction on what is to be done with the samples that were collected for two days in April. “The samples are sent to the labs every day after collection. However, we have not received any guidance on whether the samples will be included with the fresh samples when the sero surveillance resumes,” the official said.

The survey followed the protocol followed in the previous round – just over 100 samples to be collected at random from each of the 272 municipal wards in the city. The total sample size was fixed at 28,000. With a portion of population being vaccinated, the survey was also to ask about vaccination history of the participants.

The fifth serological survey in Delhi, conducted between January 15 and January 23, showed that 56.13% of the 28,000 people sampled tested positive. NEW DELHI: