ICMR Announced Nationwide Sero-Survey to Determine the Exposure of Covid-19

On last Thursday, the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR announced a nationwide sero-survey to determine the exposure of the novel coronavirus among the population will be carried out as a follow-up to a similar study conducted previously in May, the results of which are yet to be released. The ICMR will conduct a ‘sero-survey’ which involves testing blood serum of people to know the prevalence of antibodies against coronavirus infection.

Rajesh Bhushan, Officer on Special Duty in the Union Health Ministry stated that the final results of the sero-survey conducted by the ICMR in May, which focused on infections of mid-April is still under process.

“The sero-survey that ICMR conducted across the country focused on infections of mid-April and preliminary findings were shared. As you know all such sero-surveillance studies or any other scientific study is subject to peer-review and those inputs are also incorporated. So that process is going on,” Bhushan shared with reporters. “We will be in a position to share it once that gets over,” he added.

The ICMR had earlier mentioned that on the basis of the data compiled from 65 districts out of 83 districts across the country in the first part of the sero-surveillance research, 0.73 percent of the population surveyed showed evidence of past exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

Bhushan further explained the findings of the sero-survey, which has been done in Delhi by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as a part of which 22,000 samples were collected from June 27 to July 5 from 11 districts, is still under process.

“In the near future, ICMR is planning a follow up sero-survey pan-India to the earlier sero-survey that they had done for mid-April infections,” Bhushan clarified.

The sero-survey conducted in May had two parts — estimating the fraction of the general population that has been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and estimating the number of people who have been infected with coronavirus in containment zones of hotspot cities, ICMR officials had earlier specified. However, IgG antibodies against an infection take around 15 days to develop in the body.

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The survey is carried out by the ICMR in tandem with the National Centre for Disease Control and with the help of state health departments.“In the near future, ICMR is planning a follow up sero-survey pan-India to the earlier sero-survey that they had been done for mid-April infections,” an official confirmed.