Covid-19 Sero Survey

• 19 Oct 2021

Why in News

• On October 18, 2021, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij released the report of the third round of COVID-19 sero survey conducted in September, 2021, showing the sero-positivity rate among the people of the state at 76.3 percent (urban 78.1 percent and rural 75.1 percent). While 8 percent in the first sero round and 14.8 percent in the second sero round was found.

Key Points

• The highest 85 percent sero-positivity was seen in district Kurukshetra and the lowest was seen in Faridabad 64.2 percent, but in Faridabad 14 percent sample could not be concluded due to some reason, so sero survey of Faridabad district will be done again.
• On this occasion, the Health Minister also released the book of report of the third round of sero survey.
• In the sero survey, 75.3 percent of men, 77.1 percent of women, 69.8 percent of children aged 6 to 9 years, 73.2 percent of children aged 10 to 17 years have been found. Whereas after vaccination, 81.6% positivity was found in people, 75.5 percent in non-vaccinated people.
• This sero survey was done to assess the presence of antibodies against SARS and CoV-2 as a result of COVID-19 vaccination or by natural infection. In this survey, the detection of natural and vaccination generated antibodies was surveyed and the spike protein test for antibodies formed after vaccination has also been done.
• The survey was conducted by the Health Department in collaboration with the Department of Community Medicine, PGIMS, Rohtak in all the districts of Haryana. In this round of sero survey, the sample size was increased to 36,520 as against 18,700 in the first round and 15,840 in the second round.
• In this survey, about 2200 officers and employees of the health department were engaged and a stratified multilevel random sampling technique was used and a total of 913 clusters were identified to collect 36,520 samples from all the districts of Haryana.
• Before conducting this survey, 2200 people were given several rounds of training by the IDSP cell of the state. Field activity was captured digitally on the 'Sero Survey Mobile Application' with geo-coordinates for field activity. The entire activity on the portal was being monitored live by the State IDSP Cell.