39% across state did not take precautions against Covid: Sero survey

Nearly 39% of the respondents covered under the second round of the Covid-19 serological survey of Haryana said that they did not wear a mask or maintain physical

Nearly 39% of the respondents covered under the second round of the Covid-19 serological survey of Haryana said that they did not wear a mask or maintain physical distance from others. Findings of the survey, released on Monday, showed that usage of masks in districts with high seropositivity, like Faridabad, Nuh, Jind, Ambala, among others, was less.

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Of 16,512 people covered across the state, nearly 6,373 (39%) did not follow mask discipline and social distancing norms, while the rest (61%) did follow norms. The situation was better in Gurugram, where 80% of the 800 respondents claimed to have used masks.

“The data has been collected for the first time by the state health department,” said Dr Meena Rajput, professor, department of community medicine, PGIMS Rohtak, who also compiled the sero survey of the state. “The purpose of adding the two components – wearing of mask and social distance is to understand citizens’ response to precautionary measures,” she said.

The second round of survey found seropositivity of 14.8%, which is higher than the 8% recorded in August. At present, enforcement of mask discipline and social distancing are the measures to curb transmission of the infection.

“The initial survey carried out in August across all 22 districts served as a baseline to determine the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the community, while the subsequent round helped in monitoring the trend of infection. The findings show that in districts with high seropositivity, half of the respondents did not practice mask discipline and physical distance,” said Rajput.

In Faridabad, which has the highest seropositivity in the state, over 60% of respondents did not follow any precautionary norm. In Jind, where the prevalence of IgG antibodies increased from 11% in August to 26.6% in October, nearly 40% of the people did not use mask/social distancing.

Rajput said that in these districts, asymptomatic cases have been high as people were not aware of contracting coronavirus.

Experts say that mask is crucial in containing the infection as symptoms appear after four to five days of getting infected. It is likely that in this period patients might not develop usual symptoms of cough, fever or difficulty in breathing, but can still spread the infection to others. A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June found that Covid-19 is also spread by those who have a very mild disease and do not show any symptom.

Studies show that mask can reduce the growth rate of coronavirus infection by 40%. A recent study by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, found that mask usage and social distancing measures may help prevent over 200,000 Covid-19 deaths in India by December 1.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said that it is equally important to know how people are using masks. “Most of the time, the mask is below the nose or placed at the chin,” he said when asked about the increase in seropositivity rates.

Rajib Dasgupta, chairperson, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, said that ideally, mask usage should be 100% to see the impact. “In such a study, it is important to find how people use masks and did they wear it seven or ten days before the survey.”

Dr Rajesh Kumar, former head of community medicine and public health, PGIMER-Chandigarh, said, “As the lockdown has been lifted and there are no chances of it being imposed in the coming time, wearing mask, social distance and hand washing are the only ways to control soaring Covid-19 infection.”