Published 17:19 IST, July 22nd 2020
'Delhi Govt to conduct sero-surveillance every month', says Health Minister Satyendra Jain
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said that the government has decided to conduct sero-surveillance every month in a bid to break the COVID-19 chain
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In a bid to mitigate and contain the spread of COVID-19, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Wednesday said that the government has decided to conduct sero-surveillance every month. This comes a day after Delhi's seroprevalence study revealed that 23.48% of the people have been affected by COVID-19 in the city, which has several pockets of dense population.
Speaking at a press conference, Delhi's Health Minister said that after the surveillance on Tuesday, it was shown that Delhi has recovered from the infection. He added that the government has decided to conduct sero-surveillance every month.
"The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Delhi government conducted a survey. The results of this survey came out yesterday. In 24 per cent population of Delhi, antibodies have been found. This means about one-fourth of the population in Delhi has recovered from the infection. In most of the cases, people did not know that they were infected. Sero-survey was done between June 27 and July 5. The Delhi government has decided to conduct sero-surveillance every month," the Delhi's Health Minister said.
"It will be done from the 1st till 5th of every month so that we can know how many people have been infected," he said.
The study, which was conducted from June 27 to July 10 by the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) in collaboration with the Delhi government, also indicated that a large number of infected persons remain asymptomatic, it said.
A serosurvey involves testing of blood serum of individuals to check for the prevalence of antibodies against infection.
'Community spread in Delhi'
The statement comes two days after Satyendar Jain said there is a community spread of the deadly virus in Delhi. However, he added that it's very technical to say either it's local or community spread. "There is spread through the community, now it's very technical to say either it's local or community spread. Source of many (COVID-19 positive patients) remains unknown after the test. Let's leave the technical battle on Centre to decide over community spread," he said.
17:19 IST, July 22nd 2020