Uttar Pradesh: Agra district to undergo sero-surveillance

AGRA: To assess the spread of Covid-19 in Agra district and to be able to control it, the health department is all set to conduct sero-surveillance from Friday onwards. Around 45 spots have been identified for the exercise. Twenty four samples will be randomly collected at each spot. Total 1,080 people will be tested in three days. According to doctors, the objective of this study is to estimate the level of community transmission.
Chief medical officer of Agra district Dr RC Pandey said, “Around 10 teams have been constituted to conduct sero-surveillance in three days. Each team will include a doctor, a lab technician, a nurse and an Asha worker. Teams have been trained by the experts. Samples of 1,080 people collected will be sent for lab testing to the ICMR.”
District magistrate Prabhu N Singh said, “Serology tests will be conducted in Agra district for surveillance of Covid-19 in the Agra district. It looks for antibodies in blood. If antibodies are found, that means there has been a previous infection.”
Principal of SN Medical College Dr Sanjay Kala said, “When antibodies are found (a positive test result), it may mean that a person was infected with Covid-19 and their body’s immune system responded to the virus at some point in the past. People develop antibodies when their body’s immune system responds to an infection. These antibodies can be found in the blood of people previously infected whether or not they had symptoms of the illness.”
CMO said, “Sero-surveillance will provide a clear estimate of the spread of Covid-19 in Agra district. Till Thursday, there were 3,116 Covid-19 positive patients in the district. Of these, 2,494 (80.04%) people were cured and discharged.”
What is sero-surveillance: Sero-surveillance provides estimates of antibody levels against infectious diseases and is considered crucial for measuring population immunity due to past infection or vaccination. It is an important component of disease surveillance.