Seroprevalence found to be more in females during 3 rounds of Sero Surveillance: Delhi govt to HC

New Delhi [India], October 1 (ANI): Seroprevalence was found to be more in the females during the three rounds of Sero Surveillance and least in the age group of 18 to 49 years, the Delhi government informed the Delhi High Court.
The Sero Surveillance-3 shows a reduction of the Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies seroprevalence from 28.7% (as in Sero Surveillance-3) to 25.1% and the seroprevalence has declined in Northwest and Central Districts but has increased in West, South, Northwest and East Districts, the Delhi government told the Court.
Delhi High Court on Wednesday again slammed Delhi Govt for not ramping up of COVID-19 tests through RT-PCR in national capital and said "as against the testing capacity of 15,000 through RT-PCR and other similar tests per day available in Delhi, the actual number of testing being conducted through this mode is still floating around 11,000 tests per day on an average."
A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said: "In other words, though Delhi has the capacity of conducting 15,000 tests per day through RT PCR mode, 4,000 RT PCR tests per day are not being utilised, which does not make any sense when cases of COVID-19 infection during the period between 14 September 2020 to 27 September 2020, remain in the range of 3,500-4,000 cases per day with only one exception on 20 September 2020 when the positive cases reported were 2,548."
However, the court listed the matter for October 7 observing that it has been informed that the expert committee is actively involved in re-strategising the testing capacity as also reviewing the overall strategy required to be followed by the Delhi Government and a request has been made to await the said recommendations.
Meanwhile the court was informed that "Seroprevalence was found to be more in the female gender during the three rounds of Sero Surveillance and least in the age group of 18 to 49 years, as compared to the age group of those below 18 years and those who are above 50 years,"
The report of Sero Surveillance-3 shows a reduction of the Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies seroprevalence from 28.7% (as in Sero Surveillance-3) to 25.1% and the seroprevalence has declined in Northwest and Central Districts but has increased in West, South, Northwest and East Districts, the court noted.
The conclusion in the Sero Surveillance-3 report is that there is a need to enhance the focus on sample representativeness of the survey in Central, Northeast and North Districts, the court observed in its order.
It also noted that access to COVID-19 testing through Mohalla Clinics and Community Centres is also under the active consideration of the Expert Committee constituted by the Lt. Governor of Delhi which had last met on September 28 and no final decision on the way forward for capacity building and ramping up the overall testing strategy in Delhi has been taken.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Government also told the Delhi High Court that news reports relating to preliminary results of the third sero survey were "fake".
However, the court was not happy with Delhi Government response, asking it not to show the press as unreliable. The court also observed that govt did not issue any denial on the media report.
The observation came when the court sought to know from Delhi Government why the sero survey report was first shared with the media before submitting it before the court.
The court was hearing a plea, filed by advocate Rakesh Malhotra, seeking directions to conduct large-scale rapid testing in the national capital for identifying the infected people. (ANI)