Delhi: 200 samples from Covid-19 sero-survey missing

The first round of this exercise, conducted between the last week of June and the first week of July, had detected antibodies in about 23% of the volunteers.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has issued a show cause notice to the chief district medical officer of the West district after officials were unable to trace 200 samples collected for the fifth round of the serological survey in Delhi.

In the notice issued by the DGHS, Dr Nutan Mundeja, officials have been asked to explain the reason behind the lapse within three days. “This is a serious lapse on the part of team of West district responsible for sero survey,” stated the notice, also marked to Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Delhi government.

The fifth round of the serological survey kicked off in Delhi on January 11. A total of 28,000 samples have been collected during the exercise which was expected to end on Friday. The West district had a target of collecting 4200 samples for the survey.The last sero survey was conducted in October. Results of the survey showed 29.1% people had antibodies in August, which dropped to 25.1% in September and later increased to 25.5% in October.

“This is the first time that the samples from any district have been misplaced. The whole purpose of the exercise is defeated if the officials will have to re-collect the samples. It seems that the samples got lost between the lab team and the district officials,” said a senior official from the state health department.

The first round of this exercise, conducted between the last week of June and the first week of July, had detected antibodies in about 23% of the volunteers.

A serological survey is an exercise to check the prevalence of the disease in a population, by detecting the presence of specific antibodies against the virus.

The survey includes IgG Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test, which estimates the proportion of the population exposed to Sars-Cov-2 infection. The IgG test is not useful for detecting acute infections but it indicates episodes of infections that have happened in the past. The test has been approved by ICMR for its high sensitivity and specificity.

Meanwhile, Delhi saw 266 new cases and seven deaths due to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the city to 63,352.

 

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