Seventh sero-survey begins; city adds 24 new cases, 0 deaths

New Delhi: The seventh round of the serological prevelance survey that seeks to find presence of antibodies against COVID-19 got underway in the national Capital on Friday amid lower number of coronavirus cases being reported in the city for the past several weeks.

The previous survey (sixth in the series), was conducted a few months ago, starting April 12, when Delhi had been reeling under the brutal second wave of the pandemic.

Sources said the seveventh serological survey began on Friday. However, they did not specify the timeline of the exercise.

About 28,000 samples are expected to be taken as part of the survey, another source said, adding that vaccination history will also be taken from participants. Also, the exercise is taking place at a time when a large segment of the population has been vaccinated against COVID-19. Delhi's population is over two crore, spread across 11 districts.

A total of 1.76 lakh doses, including 86,634 first shots and 89,588 second jabs, were administered on September 22, according to the city's vaccination bulletin issued on Thursday.

Over 1.65 crore doses have been administered till date, it said, adding that it includes over 1.1 crore first doses in total and over 50 lakh second doses.

The outcome of the fifth round of sero-prevalance survey had found that the prevalence was over 50 per cent, indicating then that Delhi population might have been heading towards attaining herd immunity against the coronavirus infection. As part of the survey, which had ended around January 21, samples were collected from over 25,000 people from various districts across the city.

Delhi on Friday recorded 0 deaths due to COVID-19 and 24 fresh cases, as the positivity rate dropped to 0.03 per cent.