Chennai: Tamilnadu’s Directorate of Public Health is all geared up for a serological survey. According to sources, it will be done in 888 clusters in all districts and around 60,000 samples will be collected.
“It has been decided to conduct the survey in 45 health units across all districts. The outcomes will help the government make public health decisions during the pandemic,” a Health department official said.
The ICMR is conducting its own serosurveillance across the country in which samples from Tamilnadu are also tested. Considered the gold standard to measure recent or past exposure to infectious diseases, sero surveillance study is conducted to ascertain the antibody levels produced against the infection by testing blood (serum or plasma) samples.
According to Tamilnadu Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan, in the first phase, of the 60,000 blood samples to be collected from all the districts, nearly 30,000 would be tested for the antibodies.