Mumbai: The State Health Department wants to conduct sero surveys throughout the state to check the level of antibodies to Covid-19 in various districts and groups.
The Minister of Health Rajesh Tope said he would look for permission of the minister’s chairman to conduct a sero survey in all 36 districts.
There are sero surveys in various cities, including Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, but the Sero Pan-state survey has not occurred in Maharashtra.
Mumbai has done five sero surveys so far.
“Kerala has just finished a survey in all states that show a high level of antibodies in various groups and districts and I would suggest Maharashtra to do similar exercises,” Tope said.
Kerala Sero survey shows that 82.6% of people surveyed – from children, adults, pregnant women and tribal communities – have antibodies who opposed 42.2% during the sero survey conducted in May.
“We need to collect large samples from each district for surveys,” Tope said.
Dr.
Shashank Joshi, member of the State Task Force in Covid-19, said the survey in all states would help understand the level of immunity to Delta.
“Apart from the opening of the service and improvement of socialization, we have not seen an exponential increase in cases in Mumbai.
We need to understand whether this is caused by vaccination alone or delta immunity,” said Dr.
Joshi, added that the survey of genomes across the state must also be carried out.
Senior government officials said that the SERO PAN-Country survey would also help understand the explanation level in various types of populations and plan the appropriate vaccination strategy.
“At present, the vaccine distribution is being carried out based on the population and also more doses given to the district below in terms of the population covered.
Sero surveys will help us refocus our vaccination strategy,” said an official.
A senior doctor said the sero survey must be scientifically planned.
“Ideally, we have to take 1 sample per 1,000 population.
But it will be an exercise that is too big to do,” said the doctor, added that surveys with fewer participants did not always provide the right picture.