Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij on Monday said that the State has found antibodies against Covid-19 among 14.8 per cent of its population.
“Urban areas have observed a high positivity rate of 19.8 per cent, while it was 11.4 per cent in rural areas,” he added.
Addressing a news conference here, the Health Minister said that in the first round of survey conducted in August, sero-prevalence was 8 per cent across the state. He said, “This second round of sero survey was carried out to identify the further penetration of Covid-19 at the community level and to monitor its transmission trends so that proper measures can be taken to control its spread.”
Vij said that rural areas of districts Faridabad and Jind were found to have the highest positivity rate of 25.5 per cent. Urban areas of districts Faridabad, Yamunanagar and Panipat had the highest sero-positivity rates 40.2 per cent, 37.1 per cent and 36.3 per cent respectively, he said, adding that the districts of Haryana which are having lower Sero-positivity less than 10 per cent like in Hisar (9.7 per cent), Mahendergarh (8.6 per cent), Charkhi Dadri (7.7 per cent), Sirsa (7.5 per cent), Palwal (5.5 per cent) and Bhiwani (3.1 per cent).”
Haryana Director of Health Services Dr Usha Gupta said that in October, Haryana had carried out the second round of sero survey to find sero prevalence of Covid-19 in its population.
In the first round of the sero survey in August, NCR districts had high sero-positivity with Faridabad, Nuh, Sonipat and Gurugram recording 25.8 per cent, 20.3 per cent, 13.3 percent and 10.8 per cent penetration respectively. She said that survey was conducted in all 22 districts of Haryana in collaboration with Department of Community Medicine, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak. “It was conducted by taking 720 persons from each district, including both urban and rural population,” she added.
Haryana additional chief secretary (Health) Rajeev Arora said, “The study finding will be useful to guide further in designing and modifying planning, strategies and implementation of appropriate measures to contain the spread of Covid- 19 in the State.”
Haryana Director General of Health Services Dr Suraj Bhan Kamboj said 14.8 per cent 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.