ICMR terms findings appeared in media related to ICMR Sero Survey for COVID-19 as speculative

Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR has termed the findings appeared in media related to ICMR Sero Survey for COVID-19 as speculative. In a tweet today, it said the survey results are yet to be finalised.  Media reports while quoting ICMR’s population-based sero survey say that around one-third of the country’s population inside various containment zones and hotspots are exposed to Covid-19. ICMR in collaboration with the Health and Family Welfare Ministry, National Centre for Disease Control is conducting a community based Sero-survey with support from the state health department and other key stakeholders including WHO. The objective of this survey is to estimate the prevalence of Covid-19 infection in Indian population.

The national community based Sero-survey for Covid-19 will be conducted in randomly selected 69 districts of 21 states. This household level cross-sectional survey will cover 24 thousand adults from the districts categorized on the basis of reported cases of Covid-19. Blood samples will be collected for detecting IgG antibodies for ELISA test developed by ICMR-National Institute of Virology.