BENGALURU: With the third wave almost petering out, the Karnataka government is planning to conduct its third serosurvey by May. According to health officials, the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) had recommended that the survey be done around April, but it has now been deferred to May.
The reason this survey is important is also to assess if the Omicron wave has contributed to sustain the immune response, and if children below 15 are infected in a big way.
“We are working out the plan. It will be done in May-June. The need for sero surveillance has been suggested by experts, and we are in discussion with them,” said K V Trilok Chandra, Special Commissioner (Health), BBMP.
The focus this time is going to be more on children below 15 years of age, and seroprevalence among them, say experts. “We have asked the health department to focus on that age group as they are unvaccinated, and we would also want to know how the Omicron-led third wave has worked in terms of developing antibodies in these children,” an expert from TAC said.
Analysing exposure in children will help plan vaccination strategies and also learn if a majority of them have already been exposed to the infection. “If a majority of children do not show antibodies, then either Omicron failed to produce antibodies as it is a mild variant, or that they are not infected, which means this population needs to be vaccinated soon,” he said.
Though the number of cases in the state has come down drastically, almost to the pre-third wave level, experts have cautioned the state on strict vigilance. It may be noted that recently, WHO also announced the finding of the BA.3 variant of Omicron and other sub-lineages of this variant from other countries.
“Sewage survey in BBMP zones has been showing only Delta and Omicron’s BA.1 and BA.2 lineages. There is no change in the nature of the virus so far in Bengaluru. We are continuously monitoring sewage samples and that will also be an ongoing process,” the special commissioner added.