For measuring the proportion of population exposed to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), including the asymptomatic individuals, the Haryana health department will begin a comprehensive statewide sero survey from next week.
Additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora said the survey recommended by the ICMR will begin from Panchkula and Ambala.
He said the department plans to conduct 21,120 immunoglobulin enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (IgG- ELISA) tests across 22 districts in collaboration with PGIMER, Chandigarh.
“About 960 blood-based ELISA tests per district have been planned by the health department. Stratified multistage random sampling will be done and the samples will be divided into rural and urban clusters,” the ACS said.
Health officials said immunoglobulin antibodies generally start appearing after two weeks of onset of infection and last for several months.
“The test can be performed to indicate episode of coronavirus infection in the past. Detection of IgG antibodies would help us to understand the proportion of population exposed to the viral infection, including asymptomatic individuals,” the ACS said.
Officials said depending upon the findings of sero-prevalence of infection, public health interventions will be planned and implemented for the prevention and control of the disease by the policy makers.
{{/usCountry}}Officials said depending upon the findings of sero-prevalence of infection, public health interventions will be planned and implemented for the prevention and control of the disease by the policy makers.
{{/usCountry}}The information obtained from survey will also help the districts to understand the proportion of population exposed to Covid-19 infection.
The ACS said that state government would seek the co-operation of public in conducting the sero survey and confidentiality will be maintained.
“We would want to know how many people have already suffered from this virus. A lot of people get infected, but do not show any symptom like fever, cough and cold. In many cases, the symptoms are so mild that they go unnoticed. The immunoglobulin ELISA blood tests can tell us if they got this infection in the recent past,” Arora said.