National Institute of Nutrition begins second round of SARS Cov-2 survey

Hyderabad: National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in association with the state government has initiated the second round of seroepidemiological survey to monitor the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population as part of the nation-wide survey being spearheaded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday.

The baseline survey was conducted in the month of May 2020 in three districts of the state (Jangaon, Kamareddy and Nalgonda). The data then showed only two positive cases in Jangaon (0.49%) and one in each in Kamareddy (0.25%) and Nalgonda (0.25%).

Currently, as per the ICMR guidelines, 10 villages/wards are being selected in each of these districts and from each selected village 40 subjects ≥ 10 years males and females are being randomly covered for the survey.

The state health department/district authorities of Telangana government are actively engaged in the survey process to ensure smooth operationalization of the house-to-house survey in 30 villages across three districts. The total subjects covered in this survey will be about 1,200.

The population-based sero-epidemiological study will help determine the trend in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection and to determine the socio-demographic risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The findings will be useful to strengthen containment measures.