BHUBANESWAR: THE Odisha Government is all set to carry out the third phase sero-survey in Bhubaneswar from Friday to assess the spread of novel coronavirus in the Capital, one of the worst hit cities in the State.The three-day survey has been planned in the city to ascertain the cumulative population immunity besides estimating the proportion of asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic and sub-clinical infection.
Five separate teams have been formed for collection of samples and data for the community level study to be conducted by the Regional Medical Research Centre in collaboration with the BMC and Health department.
BMC sources said blood samples will be collected from 1,500 people selected randomly from 25 wards in the city. The survey teams comprising six members in each team will cover 20 wards in the first two days and the rest five wards on the last day. Since the prevalence of antibody among the city population after the last two sero-surveys in July and August was around five per cent (pc) indicating the city’s vulnerability for the spread of the virus, health experts expect this phase of study would give an idea about the latest infection pattern.
Bhubaneswar witnessed a spike in new cases throughout September with the city recording over 300 cases a day. While the survey has been conducted once in Rourkela, Puri, Parlakhemundi, Badamba-Narasinghapur and Malkangiri, the study has been carried out twice in Berhampur and Bhubaneswar. The highest antibody prevalence of 64.7 pc was found in Parlakhemundi followed by 40 pc in Malkangiri, 24.6 pc in Rourkela, 3.94 pc in Badamba-Narasinghapur and 0.15 pc in Puri. Overall 5.1 pc people had developed antibodies in the second phase survey in August in Bhubaneswar that showed the antibody prevalence of 1.42 pc during the first phase in July. Berhampur recorded 31.1 pc in the first phase and 42.5 pc in the second phase.