हिंदी
Chandigarh, August 10 – Haryana Government is all set to carry out a Sero-Survey and the blueprint for it is ready.
Haryana Health Minister, Mr. Anil Vij today said that a Sero-Survey is being carried out with an aim to identify the penetration of COVID-19 and to monitor its transmission trends. The Health Minister reviewed the Sero Survey meeting through video conferencing.
Sharing details of the purpose of the survey, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Mr. Rajeev Arora said that the findings of the study will be useful in designing and implementing appropriate containment measures in Haryana. “A Sero-Survey is testing of a group of individuals to monitor trends in prevalence of COVID-19 as it helps in understanding the number of people affected by the disease. The study will help us to determine the burden of COVID-19 at the community level in the state and monitor the trends of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection,” he added.
As per the blueprint, the sample size has been estimated at district-level. Thus, from each district 850 participants will be covered. Revealing further details Mr. Arora said, “A stratified multistage random sampling will be done. The sample size of 850 will be divided into two parts – Rural and Urban.” A total of 88 samples from rural cluster and 44 samples from each urban cluster will be taken.
Divulging further details the Health Minister said that the survey has already started in Panchkula and Ambala in association with Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh and the Health Department aims to complete it by the end of August, 2020. “It is an antibody test and it will be conducted in every district on 850 persons from both urban and rural population of respective districts. A nodal officer has been designated in every district to monitor and supervise the sero-survey activity. The health department will be able to gauge the number of people affected by COVID-19 through this survey,” he added.
While appreciating the efforts of the Health Department, Mr. Anil Vij said, “The health department has been on its toes for the last four to five months. The work of the Health Department at State HQ and at the District level, to draw the blueprint for conducting the Sero-Survey in such a short span of time is indeed commendable.”
The team conducting the survey will consist of three members, one Medical Officer (MO), one auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), and one laboratory technician.
Dr Usha Gupta Director IDSP gave a detailed presentation about the future roadmap regarding sero-survey study to be conducted in the entire State in collaboration with School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh.
“Existing and ongoing data of laboratory results will be used to calibrate the positivity rate among tests of RC-PCR in all districts for ongoing pandemic control and mitigation,” added Mr. Arora.
Among others present in the meeting included Additional Chief Secretary Health, Mr. Rajeev Arora, Managing Director HMSCL, Mr. Saket Kumar, Commissioner, Food & Drugs Administration, Mr. Ashok Kumar Meena, Mission Director, National Health Mission, Mr. Prabhjot Singh, DGHS, Director Health Services Dr. S.B. Kamboj all Civil Surgeons with their teams and other senior officers of the Health Department.
