Centre, Health News, ET HealthWorld

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday, advised all States and UTs to conduct sero-prevalence surveys in consultation with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to generate district-level data which is essential in formulating localized public health response measures. This has been delegated via a letter written by the Union Health Secretary to all States.

The Union Health Ministry conceded the findings of the fourth round of National Sero-Prevalence Survey done by ICMR and has advised the States to conduct similar sero-prevalence studies in their own States and UTs in consultation with ICMR, so that such studies follow a standardized protocol, and the findings of such studies can then be utilized quickly by the respective State and UTs to guide objective, transparent and evidence-based public health response to COVID-19.

It has been pointed out that the ICMR has conducted the recent National Sero-survey in 70 districts of India. The findings of this survey indicate the State-wise sero-prevalence as below:

As regards the national sero-survey by ICMR is to design and capture the extent and spread of Covid infection at national level. Therefore, the results do not reflect the heterogeneity of sero-prevalence between districts and even between States and/or UTs.