Second round of serological survey to check COVID-19 prevalence launched in Odisha

Bhubaneswar:– The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday launched the second round of serological survey to assess prevalence of COVID-19 among people in the city as the Odisha capital is witnessing a rise in coronavirus cases this month.

Five teams will collect 1,500 samples from various locations in the city, an official said.

“The current exercise will provide an indication of the community exposure level which was found to be very low during the first round of the serological survey,” he said.

The Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) is providing technical support to the BMC to carry out the two- day survey in the city.

A serological survey is conducted to assess the prevalence of a disease in a society or population to see if people have developed antibodies against a virus.

It shows how many or what percentage of population had contracted a particular disease and have acquired immunity against it.

“In the first round of the survey, 900 samples were collected. Though the immunity level is relatively low across the communities of the temple city, the large scale transmission has probably not occurred in the state capital,” Dr Jayasingh Kshatri, a scientist working at the RMRC, said.

RMRC Director Sanghamitra Pati and BMC Commissioner P C Chaudhury are leading the exercise, the official said.

The new survey will also be helpful to determine whether there is any change in the immunity level of a group of people who were covered in the first serological surveillance, conducted about four weeks ago.

Additional District Urban Public Health Officer Dr CVSN Rao said the community exposure to COVID-19 was relatively low in the city due to a slew of measures taken by the BMC authorities and the city police.

Bhubaneswar has reported 8,647 COVID-19 cases till Thursday. There are 3,478 active cases in the city and 36 patients have died so far.