Gurgaon: In the second serological survey, the urban areas of Haryana recorded a higher positivity rate than the rural zones. Except Nuh and Palwal, all other urban districts showed an increase in antibody prevalence compared with the first survey, whereas in rural areas Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri and Palwal showed a decline in sero positivity.
The data also points out that overall sero positivity is similar in both the genders — 14.7% in males and 14.8% in females. Bhiwani and Palwal were found to have the lowest prevalence of antibodies in both males and females as well as in total.
It has been observed that five districts which showed a rise in seropositivity in the second survey in urban areas in comparison to the first survey are Yamunanagar (31.2%), Panipat (28.5%), Ambala (22.8%), Jind (19.7%) and Fatehabad (14.6%).
The lowest seropositivity was found in Hisar (9.7%), Mahendergarh (8.6%),Charkhi Dadri (7.7%), Sirsa (7.5%), Palwal (5.5%) and Bhiwani (3.1%). “As these districts have turned hotspots after July, people have developed antibodies in the second sero survey. Just like Rohtak which had only 2% sero positivity in urban areas in the first round now has 15% positivity in the second round,” said Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, the nodal officer for Covid-19 in Haryana.
Dr Meena Rajput, professor, department of community medicine, PGIMS, Rohtak, said, “Districts with lower sero positivity need to be careful as populations have not developed antibodies and thus they might be infected in coming day.s The data points out deviation in rural-urban and male-female variations within the districts as well. For example, Faridabad has 40.2% sero-positivity in urban as compared to 25.4% in rural, and Yamunanagar has a sero positivity of 22.4% in urban and 37.1% in rural areas. Also, these rates are higher in males in Jind and Panipat i.e. 28.6% and 25%, respectively as compared to females i.e. 24.8% and 21.1%, respectively. In contrast to this, Kurukshetra has higher sero-positivity in females (14.8%) than males (11.2%).”
Although Palwal (decreased by 4.4%) and Nuh (decreased by 11.5%) have seen the highest deviation from the first sero survey, experts pointed out that this indiates a low infection rate but doesn’t rule out spread of coronavirus in future because of lower antibody prevalence. “In case of Faridabad and Yamunanagar, where the sero positivity is higher than the state average, points at inadequate containment, enforcement and lack of testing,” said DV Saharan, director (retd), health services, Haryana.
According to Dr SB Kamboj, director-general, health services, Haryana, “About 14.8% population of Haryana has developed antibodies but still a significant proportion of the population is vulnerable. Therefore, the containment measures need to be continued with the same rigor.”
Meanwhile, Gurgaon witnessed a steady increase in both urban and rural areas. It saw a 4.4% rise in sero positivity in rural areas whereas 7.4% rise in positivity in urban areas of the district. “The city’s seropositivity shows that 16.5% have developed antibodies in Gurgaon. In the first round it had 10.8% sero positivity. There is a deviation of 5.7% from the first survey. Our testing has been targeting and contact tracing were effective. It was not a significant deviation compared to state average,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurgaon.