Noida: 500 samples collected for ICMR’s sero survey

Noida: Around 500 blood samples were collected from Gautam Budh Nagar on Monday as part of the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) fourth nationwide Covid-19 serological survey in 70 districts

Noida: Around 500 blood samples were collected from Gautam Budh Nagar on Monday as part of the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) fourth nationwide Covid-19 serological survey in 70 districts.

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The survey will ascertain the prevalence (called seroprevalence) of antibodies against Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, from a past infection in a given population.

This was the fourth ICMR serosurvey in Gautam Budh Nagar. The district had also participated in a state-level survey earlier this month. Districtwise results of all surveys are yet to be released

This was also the first such serosurvey after the second wave of Covid-19 ravaged the country in April and May. Experts had previously said that they expect the antibody levels to be higher as cases were more widespread in the second wave.

Ten teams of 10 people each from the ICMR’s National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) and the district health department collected the samples at random, officials said.

“While 400 samples were collected from the general population, 100 samples were collected from health care workers at the district hospital in Sector 30. The samples will be sent to ICMR to test them for the presence of antibodies that determine a past infection due to the virus,” said Dr Deepak Ohri, district chief medical officer.

As per Dr Amit Kumar, nodal officer from the district health department for the sample collection, the collections centred around 10 areas - Acheja, Bisahda, Nagla Nainsukh, Sarakpur, Ronija, Neemka, Sahjahanpur, Dankaur, Kherli Hafizpur and Balwant Vihar Chipiyana. Around 40 samples were collected from each area, he said.

“Of the 400 people sampled from the general populace, 40 (four from each area) were from children between six and nine years, 80 (eight from each area) from children between nine and 17 years, and 280 (28 from each area) from adults (14 men and women),” said Dr Kumar.

Dr Shalini Singh, director, ICMR-NICPR, said, “The survey will give us a clue on the presence of antibodies among children as well as adults and health care workers. It will tell us about the trend of spread and presence of the infection in the community and health-care workers.”