New Delhi, Jul 22 (IANS): A serological survey will now be conducted in Delhi every month to find out how many people have developed antibodies from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Wednesday adding that the next survey in Delhi will be conducted between August 1 and 5.
Addressing a press conference, Jain said, "The Delhi government has decided to conduct sero-survey every month. It will be done from the first day of the month till 5th of every month." The next survey will be conducted on August 1, the minister said, adding that more samples will be taken this time as compared to the last.
For the last exercise, survey teams were formed, blood samples were collected from selected individuals after taking written informed consent and then their sera were tested for the IgG antibodies. As many as 21,387 samples were collected during the survey.
"But the sample size of next survey will be larger than this. And samples for the survey will be collected on a random basis from all over Delhi," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.
Out of the 11 districts, eight have sero-prevalence of more than 20 per cent. In the central, north-east, north and Shahdara districts, the sero-prevalence is 27 per cent. Delhi's south-west area has 12.95 per cent sero-prevalence, the least in the city, followed by south and west Delhi at 18.61 per cent and 19.13 per cent, respectively.
Jain further said that in the previous sero survey which was conducted in Delhi between June 27 to July 5, it was found that 24 per cent people in the national capital have developed antibodies from Covid-19 virus, which means that 24 per cent people have got infected by the virus and then recovered.
The minister said that it was found in the survey that most of the people were not even aware that they have been infected by Covid-19 virus. Jain once again reiterated that in Delhi the spread of Covid-19 has reached the "community", but he cannot say whether it is community spread or not.
Jain himself had tested positive for Covid-19 last month but has recovered and resumed work on Monday.