About 69 percent of children in Chandigarh have tested positive for IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in a sero survey being conducted by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research.
The survey was kickstarted on June 24 to cover children between 6-18 years of age and the PGIMER on Tuesday released initial findings.
The serosurvey among the paediatric population is of utmost importance since there is a speculation that the third COVID-19 wave can affect children, said PGIMER Director Dr Jagat Ram.
He said that till date, blood samples of 756 children had been collected for the serosurvey out of which 519 had tested positive for IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 which means almost 69 percent of children in Chandigarh had been previously infected.
Till date blood samples of 756 children had been collected for the serosurvey out of which 519 had tested positive for IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 which means around 69 percent of children in Chandigarh had been previously infected, he said.
Giving more details, Prof. Mini P Singh informed that the testing is being carried out using a high throughput CLIA machine available in the Department of Virology so that reports can be made available in a short span of time.
The serosurvey teams have been divided into four groups each consisting of a field investigator and a laboratory technician who undertook household visits in different sectors, villages and slums and took blood samples after obtaining informed consent from the parents of the enrolled children. Out of all children enrolled till July 4, 396 samples were collected from households of Sector 22, Sector 24, Sector 36, Sector 56 and Sector 11 which showed positivity in 65 percent of samples (257 positive out of 396) and 360 samples were collected from households of villages, Burail, Maloya, Dhanas, Attawa and Khajeri which showed positivity of 73 percent (262 out of 360). These are the interim results and the study aims to collect around 2700 samples in total which will provide a clearer picture of the actual percentage of children between 6-18 years of age who had been SARS-CoV-2 infected during first and second waves in Chandigarh.