BMC to conduct serosurvey of healthcare, frontline workers

Effect of vax, booster dose on antibody levels to be studied during the survey, say civic officials

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to conduct a serosurvey from September 15 to October 6 to check the antibody levels among the healthcare and frontline workers.

More than 3,000 samples will be collected from hospitals, medical health officers, Solid Waste Department and workers from BEST across the city.

Civic officials said during the pandemic many HCWs and FLWs have been infected and reinfected due to which their antibody levels had dropped.

They also stressed on the need to understand the current antibody levels despite administering three doses including a booster

Out of the 3,094 samples, 838 will be collected from the primary health setup across 24 wards, followed by Solid Waste Management workers (768 samples), BEST workers (768) and Medical Health Officers (720 samples).

“We are starting with the second phase of sero survey amongst HCWs and FLWs to understand the level of antibodies knowing most of them have taken the three doses of Covid-19 vaccine," said an health officer.

Infectious diseases experts said the third wave, driven by the extremely transmissible Omicron, has affected a large portion of the population.

This wave was particularly notable for infection in a large number of healthcare workers, leading to disruptions in medical services.

“Besides, practically the entire population is vaccinated and many, including HCWs have received their precautionary dose as well. Consequently, many have acquired hybrid immunity (natural infection plus vaccine induced immunity). Hence, the forthcoming serosurvey is likely to show a high seropositivity amongst HCWs,” he said.

The previous sero-survey report which was done in February this year had shown that 99.93 percent of the healthcare and frontline workers in Mumbai had high antibodies.

More than 3,000 samples will be collected from hospitals, medical health officers, Solid Waste Department and workers from BEST across the city