ICMR completes second serosurvey, analysis underway in final stage

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has completed the second round of the countrywide serological survey (serosurvey) to detect the prevalence of the COVID-19 disease and its analysis is underway in the final stage, the ICMR informed on Sunday.

The apex body of medical research in the country added that the ongoing study of the second serosurvey would offer a comparison with the results of the first survey that ICMR published a week ago.

The ICMR also said that it has been continuously sharing the findings of dynamic containment zones from the previous survey to the respective state authorities. "The findings of the previous survey from the dynamic containment zones were communicated to the states for further action," it informed.

Meanwhile, the ICMR also stated that the states have also conducted their zone and city-specific surveys along with ICMR's. "To further aid in developing state intervention plans following the ICMR survey, states have also conducted their zone/city-specific surveys," the ICMR stated.

On Tuesday, Dr Balram Bhargava, director-general, ICMR had told during a press briefing that the results of the second serosurvey would be made public by the end of September. "The second national serosurvey is almost done. We have completed the exercise in 68 out of 70 districts, and the analysis is in progress. We should have the results by the end of September," he had informed.

The first national serosurvey was a randomly sampled, community-based survey conducted from May 11 to June 4. The samples were collected from 700 villages and wards, which were selected from 70 districts in 21 states of the country. The previous survey revealed that India had 6.4 million coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients by early May.

In percentage, the national prevalence was found to be 0.73 per cent. The worst-affected were those between the age group of 18 and 45 years, as 43.3 per cent had developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, which causes the Covid-19 disease. While Covid-19 patients in the age group between 46 and 60 years accounted for 39.5 per cent of the sampled individuals. The ICMR published the findings of the first survey on September 11.