Three Odisha districts to be part of nationwide sero survey on kids

BHUBANESWAR: For the first time children will be part of the nationwide serological survey to be conducted this month by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Three districts in Odisha (Ganjam, Rayagada and Koraput) will be part of this nationwide survey.
The ICMR, with the help of the state governments, is conducting this survey to know the prevalence of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in the country after the second wave of Covid-19.Regional medical research centre (RMRC) of the ICMR plans to start the serological survey from June 16 or June 17 and continue till June 22.
ICMR-RMRC director Sanghamitra Pati said children above six years will be part of the sero survey. “It will be conducted in the three districts with the logistic help from the state government. We have identified 10 clusters in each district for the survey,” Pati said.
She said a family will be randomly selected from a cluster and samples will be collected for serological survey. “This survey will help us to know the prevalence of antibodies and guide us to make a strategy to tackle the Covid-19 situation in the state and country in future,” she added.
The RMRC, with the support of the state government, has already conducted state-level sero surveys last year. It had started this survey at Puri in June last year. Later, it conducted the survey in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Baramba-Narasinghpur, Rourkela, Paralakhemundi, Malkangiri and Cuttack.
RMRC and BMC had conducted this survey thrice in Bhubaneswar last year. The first phase of the survey was conducted between July 11 and 28. Sero prevalence was only 1.42% in this survey. The second survey was conducted in the last week of August last year with antibody prevalence of 5.15%. The third phase survey conducted between October 16 and 18 had revealed that antibodies had formed in 50% of the city’s population.
Out of all surveys, the state government had found the highest antibody prevalence among people in Paralakhemundi. The survey conducted between September 16 and 18 last year revealed that around 65% of Paralakhemundi’s population had developed antibodies against coronavirus. However, the sero survey conducted between August 3 and 7 in Berhampur city of Ganjam district had revealed that antibodies were formed in only 31.1% of the city’s population.