The national sero-surveillance being conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will be done in Kandivali East and West, Deonar, Dharavi and Kurla-Sakinaka areas of Mumbai. 500 people will be selected randomly for the survey in the five clusters in Mumbai.
The teams will visit the randomly selected households and after obtaining consent, detailed history of the person and the contact, if any, will be recorded. The survey team will collect blood from each participant. On these blood samples, anti-body tests will be performed.
The ICMR is conducting the sero-surveillance in 60 districts of India including 10 hotspot cities and Mumbai is one of the cities. The objective is to estimate and monitor the trend of sero-prevalence for SARS-CoV-2 infection in high burden cities.
It will determine the socio-demographic risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection and help in understanding the geographical spread of the infection in the general population and hotspot cities. This will be a baseline survey and there will be subsequent rounds.
“Detection of SARS CoV- 2 specific IgG antibodies will be performed. The development of antibodies is a sign of exposure to COVID-19 infection. The knowledge gained will help to evolve guidelines to help prevent and control the spread of infection in communities,” Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officers said.
The results of these tests will indicate as to how many people in a population have been infected by SARS-Cov-2 or coronavirus disease (Covid-19), and have developed immunity to it. According to the ICMR, this will help in devicing strategies regarding lockdown at the district level and guide containment measures.
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