Third sero survey to be held next week

A third round of the serological survey to detect the presence of antibodies developed against the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be held in the second week of June, according to the district health department

A third round of the serological survey to detect the presence of antibodies developed against the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be held in the second week of June, according to the district health department. Four urban clusters and 12 rural areas have been selected in the district for the survey.

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“State health department has planned to conduct the third round of sero survey by using the sample size of 400 participants from each district of Haryana. Guidelines on conducting the survey are yet to be received from the state,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer of Gurugram.

Officials said that directions were issued to make necessary arrangements for lab equipment, such as reagents and testing machines, among others, before the survey starts.

Serological surveys help in gauging the extent of spread and the actual burden of Covid-19 infection in a given area. Blood samples are taken to trace the presence of IgG antibodies, which a person might have developed after contracting the virus but remained asymptomatic.

Across the state, 88 urban areas and 264 villages have been finalised for the survey, with an overall sample size of around 8,800, with 400 samples to be collected from 22 districts.

In Gurugram, samples will be collected from urban clusters under urban primary health centres of Mullahera, Basai Enclave, Naharpur Roopa and Patel Nagar. These are densely populated areas of the district, largely in old Gurugram, said officials. Besides, samples will also be collected from rural blocks of Bhondsi, Pataudi, Farrukhnagar, Wazirabad, Mushedpur, Khalipur, Baluda, Sanchauli, Dooma, Khetiawas and Lohatki.

The state conducted two serological surveys in 2020. In the first round in Gurugram, the seropositivity rate of the urban areas was 18.5%, which increased to 25.9% in the second area, while in rural areas, it increased from 5.7% in the first round to 10.1% in the second round. In both surveys, over 800 people were tested.

Overall, the seropositivity in the state in the second round was 14.8%. At the district level, Faridabad reported the highest prevalence of 31.2%, followed by 28.6% in the Yamunanagar district. Six districts, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Mahendragarh, Sirsa and Hisar, were found to have seropositivity prevalence below 10%.