In order to formulate better policies for tackling Covid-19, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said fresh sero-survey will be conducted in the national Capital from August 1-5 and such exercises will be conducted every month in both containment and non-containment zones.
The decision comes after the city Government analysed the results of the latest sero-survey which showed that 23 per cent of the people here had exposure to the novel coronavirus.
“The sero-survey was conducted in Delhi last month in which we collected blood samples and checked the presence of the antibodies in a person. The presence of antibodies implies that the person was infected by Covid-19 but has now recovered. It has indicated that around one-fourth of Delhi has been exposed to the novel coronavirus so far and has recovered,” Jain said.
The survey was conducted by the Delhi government in collaboration with the National Centre for Disease Control on around 21,000 samples between June 27 and July 5.
“The survey report found antibodies in around 24 percent or 1/4th of the population in Delhi. This means that nearly one-fourth of Delhi’s population was infected by the Covid-19 and has recovered. Most of these people did not know that they were infected,” he said.
Jain said, "We are trying to collect a representative sample of the society, by collecting samples from senior citizens, young people, children, men, and women. Around 21,000 samples have been collected until now,”
"The Delhi government is working towards making a proper protocol of the sample collection. This time, the survey will be conducted in the entire Delhi,” he said.
On reports of some people trying to indulge in monetary transaction for convalescent plasma, Jain warned that "strict action" will be taken if anyone tries to buy or sell plasma
The health minister further said that the Delhi government is very serious about plasma therapy. “If there is any report of corruption regarding plasma donation then the government will take serious action against the people associated with such corruption,” he said.
On the question of herd immunity in Delhi, he said that experts have different views on this. “Experts say that herd immunity is developed when 40-70 per cent of the population has recovered from COVID-19. The government has received the results for 24 per cent of the population, and therefore, we cannot say that in Delhi the herd immunity has developed within the population as per the results of the survey," he said.
Jain also said that the government will provide financial compensation to the family of a 42-year-old contractual doctor Javed Ali, who was working with Delhi government's National Health Mission as he was a frontline worker and died during COVID-19 duty.
"The percentage of deaths due to COVID-19 in July is far less as compared to what it was in June due to measures taken by the government.Earlier, there were complaints that people had to wait for a long time to get admission to the hospitals but Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal directed that there should be a separate holding area in the hospital where the patients would be taken immediately and oxygen would be given,” he said.
The government has distributed 24,000 pulse oximeters which have also helped to reduce the number of deaths due to COVID, he added.
Delhi recorded 1349 fresh coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking the tally in the city to over 1.25 lakh,while?the death toll from the disease mounted to 3,690,?authorities said
Government officials said, all precautions will have to be taken by people to combat coronavirus, and government will continue with measures as "we can't let our guard down" even though comparatively less cases are being reported than couple of weeks before
The total number of COVID-19 tests done till June 21 in Delhi stands at 8,51,331
The number of tests done per million to detect infection, as on Tuesday was 44,805, while the number of containment zones stood at 689
As per the latest survey, Southeast district of Delhi was found to have sero-prevalence of 22.12 per cent, Shahadara 27.61 per cent, Northwest 23.31 per cent, New Delhi 22.87 per cent, Central 27.86 per cent, Southwest 12.95 per cent, Northeast 27.7 per cent, East 23.9 per cent, North 25.26 per cent, South 18.61 per cent and West 19.13 per cent.
Highlights (In Box)
Serosurvey results conducted between June 27 and July 5 show nearly 24%, which is one-fourth of the population in Delhi was exposed to Coronavirus and has recovered.
The serosurvey report includes samples collected from 27th June to 5th July, 24 percent of the people were found to have antibodies.
The survey was done based on a representative sample including youth men, women, and senior citizens.
The government will collect more than 21000 samples this time to find out the difference and devise policies.