E-Paper
Amid rising covid cases, Karnataka to conduct serosurvey in June; focus on 6-14 age group
As per a government order, two rounds of serosurvey will be conducted and the first survey will focus on children as per the recommendation of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) since children in the state are largely unvaccinated against Covid
Amid the rising Covid-19 cases in the state, the Karnataka government decided to conduct a state-wide Covid-19 serological survey in June for children in the age group of 6-14 years, an order stated on Wednesday.
As per a government order, two rounds of serosurvey will be conducted and the first survey will focus on children as per the recommendation of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) since children in the state are largely unvaccinated.
“The survey is planned to be conducted in all the 30 districts, including the eight zones of the civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), with 5,072 participants from both urban and rural areas. Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs will be collected along with 2 ml of venous blood from all willing participants,” the health department said in a statement.
At the district and taluk level, health teams will be identified, which will include Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (lCTC) counsellors and lab technicians for sample collection under the supervision of a paediatrician.
“A web-based application has been developed for collecting the data during the survey. The survey is aimed to understand the active Covid-19 infection, the prevalence of seropositivity (Covid-19 antibodies), waning of antibodies following natural infection, the incidence of re-infection and the prevalent strain of SARS-CoV2 among the unvaccinated paediatric age group. The sample of those children who have symptoms but are found negative for Covid-19 will be tested for other influenza diseases. This survey will also throw some light on the burden of diabetes among the children,” the health department said.
Karnataka on Wednesday recorded 376 new Covid-19 cases and zero deaths with a positivity rate of 1.61 per cent. Bengaluru alone logged 358 new infections. The state also saw 231 new discharges in the last 24-hours. Currently, there are 2,623 active Covid-19 cases in Karnataka.
Meanwhile, the BBMP has made the wearing of masks mandatory in public places and decided. Bengaluru’s civic body said marshals have been directed to enforce Covid-appropriate behaviour, such as mask-wearing and social distancing, officials aware of the development, said.
The BBMP said that it would increase the number of daily tests to 20,000, up from the existing 16,000. “Every day, more than 200 new Covid cases are being reported, and we are conducting 16,000 tests. Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath has asked us to increase the tests to 20,000 from 16,000 by the BBMP and 4,000 at the private labs. We will strengthen the information, education and communication activities,’ said) special commissioner, Harish Kumar.
