CHANDIGARH: Haryana has found antibodies against COVID-19 among 14.8% of its people in the second round of seroprevalence survey released in the state capital on Monday. It is 19.8% in urban areas and 11.4% in rural areas.
The second phase, held on Oct 19-20, took up samples of 14,477 people from all districts. In the first survey conducted in August, antibodies were found only in 8% people.
The rural areas of Faridabad and Jind have the highest positivity rate of 25.5%. Urban areas of Faridabad, Panipat and Yamunanagar districts have the highest seropositivity rates of 40.2%, 37.1% and 36.3%, respectively.
Revealing the figures, state Health and Home Minister Anil Vij said he said that in the report pertaining to the survey of urban areas, 40.2% had antibodies in Faridabad, 37.1% in Yamunanagar and 36.3% in Panipat.
The survey is about testing a group of individuals for the presence of antibodies as it helps in understanding the number of people affected by the disease, he elaborated.
Districts where the average seropositive percentage is high are Faridabad where 31.2% have antibodies, Yamunanagar with 28.6% and Jind with 26.6% with antibodies.
He called upon the doctors to put in more efforts to further bring down the present fatality rate of 1.06%.
He said the recovery rate in the state is 91.46%.
Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Rajeev Arora said it has been observed that the urban people were more affected than the rural population.
Thus, low prevalence findings can be attributed to the proactive efforts made by the government to prevent the spread of infection, including prompt lockdown, effective testing strategies, effective containment and surveillance measures, including contact tracing and tracking, Additional Chief Secretary Rajeev
Arora added.