HYDERABAD: The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in association with the Telangana government will take up the fourth round of the community-based Sero Surveillance for Covid-19 from Tuesday. For the first time, it would include children between six and nine years.
This information comes on the heels of the threat of a Covid-19 third wave in India, with some of the experts saying that it might affect more number of children than the first and second waves. The Sero Survey will start on Tuesday and will be conducted in Jangaon, Kamareddy and Nalgonda districts — the same districts, where the earlier three rounds of the survey were conducted last year in May, August and December. The survey will be completed in three to four days.
The NIN in a press release, on Monday, said that apart from the children aged between six and nine years, other age groups to be tested would be the same as the ones during the previous three phases - adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years, those aged above 18 years and healthcare workers (HCWs).
Dr A Laxmaiah, Head of the Public Health Division at NIN and co-ordinator of the survey, said, “This will be the fourth in the series of cross-sectional surveys. Around 400 subjects will be covered from 10 villages each from the chosen three districts. In addition, 100 HCWs from district hospitals, community health centres and so on, will be covered from each district.”
The NIN said, “IgG antibody based sero-positivity indicates the extent of spread in general population. This will help in monitoring the trends of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population and frontline workers, thus forming the basis for strengthening control measures for the impending rise in numbers, if any.”