E-Paper
Sero survey from Saturday
New Delhi
New Delhi
Delhi government health teams will start collecting blood samples across Delhi from Saturday to detect the presence of virus-fighting antibodies in the population to know the spread of Covid-19. Phlebotomists – or lab technicians – from government-run dispensaries and mohalla clinics will collect 20,000 samples from across 11 districts in Delhi by July 10.
“People will not have to come to testing centres for the antibody sample collection. It is a simple blood draw that can be done at their homes with minimal risk of the infection spreading. The samples will be sent to NCDC for processing,” said a district official.
The district teams had been trained by experts from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the processes to be followed were discussed Friday evening. However, no formal SOPs or guidelines were received.
“Yes, we are all set to roll out the survey tomorrow, all the protocols are in place,” said an NCDC official on condition of anonymity.
Every district will have to collect about 2,000 samples that is statistically representative of the population of Delhi. “The samples have to be collected from within and outside the containment zones. It has to be collected from rich and poor neighbourhoods. A method of random sampling has been decided upon by NCDC and we have to just follow the methodology to collect the samples,” said another district official.
Officials say that the biggest hurdle for the sero-surveillance will be manpower.
“We already have our health teams conducting the door-to-door screening, antigen testing, contact tracing, and checking people’s home for suitability of home isolation. All activities need some level of medical understanding and our staff is already stretched thin. For sero-surveillance too we will need trained technicians who can draw blood,” said a third district official, on condition of anonymity.
Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, in a late evening meeting on Thursday, reviewed the implementation of various decisions pertaining to Covid-19 situation in Delhi which were taken in a meeting by home minister Amit Shah on June 21.
