ICMR conducts second national sero survey; India's Covid-19 crosses 60,000

With India's Covid-19 death toll crossing 60,000, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has undertaken its second national-level sero survey to find out the extent of the virus’ spread in the last eight months.

Medical researchers will look for Covid antibodies in 28,000 blood samples — 400 each from 70 representative districts. These are the same districts that were part of the first survey.

In the second survey, every member of the household, including children of more than 10 years of age, will be examined. In the first round, only those above 18 years were included.

Since the second survey will be completed by the first week of September, the inputs will help guide future policy decisions like reopening of schools.

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While the results of the first ICMR survey are yet to be published, such studies were carried out in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Punjab. After two rounds of peer review, the results of the first survey are set to be published in the upcoming issue of the Indian Journal of Medical Research.

But the survey results from the states suggest that 20%-30% of the population were exposed to the virus, though a large number of them did not have any symptoms or health issues that may have compelled them to seek healthcare.

“Sero survey tells us how far the infection has spread and helps change the policy dynamically. For instance, the two surveys in southwest Delhi show 13% (1st survey) and 16% (2nd survey) of people were exposed to the virus. This means a large number of populations are susceptible and there can’t be any slackening in containment measures and social distancing norms,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

India’s total Covid-19 death count now stands at 60,550. More than 67,000 fresh cases (health ministry data) were also registered on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases past the 32-lakh mark.

But only around seven lakh are active cases as more than 24.5 lakh have recovered. The mortality stands at 1.84%. Among the deceased, 69% are male and 31% female.