Household survey to gauge prevalence of COVID-19 begins

New Delhi, May 13: The Indian Council of Medical Research is conducting a house-hold level antibody testing of 24,000 adults in selected districts.

This exercise is being conducted to estimate the prevalence of COVID-19 infection among people.

The survey will be based on random samples collected from 69 districts of 21 states in India.

The survey will involve collection of venous blood samples from 400 randomly selected individuals (one per household) from 10 clusters in each district.

The document stated that throat/nasal swabs will be collected for RT-PCR tests and samples would be tested in a one-time pool of 25.

The data will be analysed locally for action using standard indicator formats. Indicators for person, place, time and trend analysis will be made. Data collation and dissemination will take place as decided jointly by ICMR and department of health and family welfare, it said.