UP to start sero-survey from September 4

Lucknow, Sep 1 The Covid-19 sero prevalence survey will begin in Uttar Pradesh from September 4, almost three weeks ahead of the schedule.

According to Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad, two rounds of training will take place ahead of the actual sample collection.

Prasad said, "The King George's Medical University (KGMU) will moderate the survey, which will cover 11 districts, including Kanpur, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Agra."

Several states like Delhi, Punjab and Maharashtra have already released the outcomes of their sero-surveys.

"Sample collection will take place between September 4 and 6. As many as 1,080 samples will be collected from each district. This means 11,080 samples will be collected and transported to the KGMU for testing," Prasad said.

All Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) concerned have been asked to form 10 teams comprising four persons, led by a medical officer, in each district.

The team will look for Covid-19 clusters wherein they will identify 24 persons living in six households across four localities in urban and rural areas who can be roped in for the study.

Public health specialist Dr. Vishwajeet Kumar said: "Knowing that the majority of the cases are asymptomatic and liable to be missed in the RT-PCR testing, sero-prevalence surveys can be a significant step in the ongoing battle against the pandemic."

( With inputs from IANS )