COVID-19: Delhi govt's next round of sero-survey begins; sample size 15,164

The October round of monthly sero-prevalance survey in the national capital, which got delayed earlier, has started, sources said on Friday. The last survey was held from September 1-7 to better assess the COVID-19 situation here and formulate combat strategies.

The exercise was slated to begin from October 1, but got delayed as the results of the survey done last month was presented to the Delhi High Court on September 30. "This month's survey began from October 15. A total of 15,164 samples will be taken," an official source said. The national capital recorded 22 COVID-19 fatalities on Friday, as the toll mounted to 5,946 while 3,428 fresh cases took the tally to over 3.24 lakh, authorities said.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, in a media briefing, said the overall case fatality is 1.83 per cent. Later in a Facebook post, he also said that the sero-prevalance survey for October month began on Thursday.

The September survey had found that sero-prevalence of antibodies to COVID-19 had reduced to 25 per cent, from nearly 29 per cent recorded in the August exercise, among people in the national capital, the Delhi High Court was informed.

The September survey also found that nearly one-third of the participants with a past history of COVID-19 infection "did not have detectable IgG antibodies". "However, there is evidence that antibodies to COVID-19 may deplete over time," it added. Sample size in the last month's exercise was about 17,000.