Delhi govt starts Sero Survey of 20,000 people

The Serological Survey in Delhi starts from June 27, 2020. The survey will be conducted on as many as 20,000 households in Delhi on a random basis. It will also include individuals below 18 years of age. 

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had announced that a Serological Survey will be conducted across Delhi between June 27 and July 10, 2020. Under the survey, samples of 20,000 people will be tested for COVID-19. 

The plan to conduct the survey was decided in a meeting that was chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The meeting was attended by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, LG Anil Baijlal, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, and other senior officials. 

Why Sero survey is important?

As per the senior government official, the authorities will start sero surveillance in Delhi through antibody testing to observe how much of the population has been exposed to the COVID-19 infection as of now.

Major Points of containment strategy:

• Renewed delimitation of the containment zone.

•  Strict control and monitoring over the limits.

• Contact tracing of all infected persons as well as quarantining of contacts.

• Use of Aarogya Setu App

• Each house outside the containment zone must be listed and monitored.

• COVID care centre or home isolation.

• COVID care centres to operate properly with the help of NGOs or voluntary organizations. 

Containment Strategy in Delhi:

As per the Home Ministry, according to Dr. Paul's report, each district in Delhi will be connected to a large hospital. The ministry also mentioned that the Delhi government must fix a plan by June 22, it must constitute district level teams by June 23, the government must revise the delimitation of all containment zones by June 26 and Survey the containment zones by June 30. 

The Delhi government must also assess every deceased. It must identify how many days before the person's death he was brought to the hospital or if he was in home isolation, he was brought in at a right time or not.  

What is Sero Survey for COVID-19?

The ministry has explained that the survey involves testing blood serum of a group of individuals to monitor the trends of SARS-COV-2 infection or novel coronavirus at the district level.

Among the low-risk population, outpatient attendees, and pregnant women will be tested while for the high-risk population, health care workers will be surveyed.