Dibrugarh (Assam), December 14 (PTI): The administration of Assam's Dibrugarh district on Monday launched a survey among people on seroprevalence of antibody to COVID-19, officials said.
Seroprevalence is the level of a pathogen in a population, as measured in blood serum.
The survey will help the authorities find out the actual number of people infected by COVID-19 in the district which has reported very little positive cases from its tea gardens and slum areas, they said.
Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha said that the administration will prepare to move to the next phase to fight coronavirus based on the survey results.
The survey will be conducted by the ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), North East, here in collaboration with the state health department and the National Health Mission.
The authorities have targeted to complete the study, funded by Oil India Limited, and analyse it by the first week of January 2021 to know the status of COVID-19 spread in the district, the deputy commissioner said.
Similar surveys in other states have shown that the actual number of COVID-19 infected people is 10 times more than the positive cases detected, said RMRC scientist Dr Biswajyoti Borkokoty.
He said that blood samples will be collected from people of 60 clusters of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's home district -- 30 each from rural and urban areas.
Out of the 15 lakh population of the district, altogether 1,200 samples will be collected with 20 from each cluster, Borkokoty said.
Assam Medical College Hospital Principal Dr Saneeb Kakoti, who was also present at the programme, said that the survey will unveil many facts related to prevalence of cases of COVID-19 as the district has seen very little positive cases from the tea garden community and slum areas.
Another sero-survey was earlier launched in Guwahati by an NGO in August to ascertain whether a person has developed immunity to coronavirus.
