NEW DELHI: For a more accurate approach in dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic, the Delhi government commenced its sixth and biggest sero-survey on Friday, September 24, 2021. Health minister Satyendar Jain said the sixth sero-survey has begun in Delhi and a total of 280 wards will be surveyed with 100 samples being collected from each ward.
According to the government, the survey will take around two weeks to complete, with one week given for sample collection and another week for the results to come out. The government began the survey to find out the percentage of the population that has developed antibodies against Covid-19, either through natural infections or by vaccination, as per the official order.
“The sixth sero survey has begun in the national capital. This will be done in 280 wards of Delhi, including the NDMC and Cantonment Board. The government aims to collect 28,000 samples randomly from people from all the wards in the survey” said Jain.
According to the health minister, it is one of the biggest serological survey and the government is hoping for a more accurate and positive report at the end of the survey. According to the experts, high ‘seropositivity’ is expected to be found in this sero-survey.
Earlier, the fifth sero-survey which was conducted this year found that over 56 per cent of Delhi’s population was exposed to the viral infection. The exercise in August 2020 showed 29.1 per cent of people had coronavirus antibodies. In the surveys of September and October last year the figures stood at 25.1 per cent and 25.5 per cent respectively.
The first sero-prevalence survey conducted last year from June 27-July 10 by the Delhi government in association with the National Centre for Disease Control, had used 21,387 samples and found that around 23 per cent of the people surveyed had exposure to the novel coronavirus.