Serological survey to determine spread of Covid-19 to begin in Delhi on Saturday
It is part of the new Covid-19 response plan prepared by the Centre for Delhi. On Tuesday, the national capital recorded its largest single-day spike of coronavirus disease cases with 3,947 people testing positive.
The government on Friday announced that serological survey will be carried out in national capital Delhi from Saturday, which has seen a spike in the number of Covid-19 cases.
“As per the directives of HM @AmitShah, discussion was done on the serological survey in Delhi, which will be carried out jointly by NCDC and Delhi Government. Survey will begin from June 27, training of all the concerned survey teams was completed yesterday,” Union home ministry spokesperson said on Twitter.
The tweet also said that officers are being trained for this. “HM @AmitShah also approved the combined use of Aarogya Setu & Itihaas apps as strong predictive tools for future detection of COVID outbreaks in population clusters. Training on combined use of apps was imparted by NCDC trainers to the district teams of the Delhi Govt yesterday,” a second tweet from the home ministry spokesperson said.
The serological test or ‘sero surveillance’, which its being called, would help to identify those who have recovered from Covid-19 without being tested because they were asymptomatic, had mild disease, or could not get tested for some reason.
It is part of the new Covid-19 response plan prepared by the Centre for Delhi.
“On 25 June, Union Home Secretary reviewed implementation of various decisions on COVID in Delhi which were taken on 21 June in a meeting chaired by HM @AmitShah. Member Niti Aayog, Director AIIMS, DG ICMR along with Delhi’s Chief Secretary & Health Secretary attended the meeting. In the meeting, it was clearly noted that decisions were being implemented in a smooth and timely manner and a COVID response plan was finalised for Delhi. District level teams for COVID related tasks were also constituted,” the home ministy spokesperson said on Twitter today.
The Twitter posts also informed that re-drawing of containment zones in Delhi would be completed by June 26 and door-to-door health survey would also be done by June 30.
Delhi on June 24 recorded 3,788 fresh coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the tally to over 70,000, while the number of deaths due to Covid-19 climbed to 2,365. On Tuesday, the national capital recorded its largest single-day spike of coronavirus disease cases with 3,947 people testing positive.
The recent spike in cases also comes on the heels of testing in Delhi being ramped up. The number of average daily tests in Delhi more than doubled to 13,880 for the week ending June 23 compared to 6,200 the week before.
The positivity rate for the week ending June 22 stood at 24 per cent, meaning nearly one in every four people tested turned out positive. This number was 31 per cent a week before. The number is still high in but it has begun to decline - a clear indication that Delhi is finally beginning to test enough.
