NEW DELHI: The repeat pan-India sero-survey, being planned by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to assess the actual extent of Covid-19 spread, will be conducted in every state and will have more than double the sample size tested as compared to the last time.
The survey plan has hit the drawing board as the Council, facing severe criticism for keeping the last survey report under wraps for several weeks, is now preparing to publish the full report in its Indian Journal of Medical Research.
The sero-survey is an important exercise in the current pandemic that tests blood samples from random individuals in a given population to check for antibodies against the SARS CoV 2 — which confirms that they have been infected in the recent past.
Sources said a formal approval for the fresh round of national survey was given on July 11 after which members of an expert group on surveillance and epidemiology under the ICMR are now working to develop technical and implementation design of the study.
This time, states will be divided into three categories based on high, medium, and low caseload, and the survey in all three categories will be carried out in every state. The survey exercise could begin later this month or in early August.
“This time we want to make the survey much more comprehensive and detailed,” a member of the expert group said on the condition of anonymity. “This will require much more resources both in terms of manpower and finances and also support from the state governments,” he added.
The last survey - conducted in two parts in May - had touched 65 districts chosen with high, medium, low, and zero Covid-19 caseloads in 21 states in the first part and containment areas in 10 hotspot districts in the second part.
The government so far has revealed only one figure from the first part of the survey, which showed that overall, 0.73 per cent population in non-hotspot districts were found to be infected.
This gave an idea that till April end overall infection prevalence was less than 1 per cent in the non-hotspot districts in the country by April end as antibodies show nearly three weeks after the infection.
The other part of the survey, not revealed by the Centre but reported by this newspaper showed that 15-30 per cent population in many containment zones in hotspot districts was found to be exposed to the virus.
Meanwhile, the full report has now been shared with the expert group after many members wrote to the ICMR DG demanding that the report be made public at the earliest.